Pillars of Orthodoxy, or 
Defenders of the Faith* 



BY 



Ben flD, Boaarfc, 



Author of "Four Reasons Why I Am A Baptist,'" "Christian Union, or 

The Problem Solved'' 1 "Baptist Church Government,'" 

etc. 



Gal. 2:9.— "And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be 
pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me 
and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship." 



LOUISVILLE, KV. 
BAPTIST BOOK CONCERN. 

1900. 



10857 



Two Copies Receives 
I JUN 25 1900 

CtpyrtgM vtoj 

\ a.,. /<£$.£&. 

St co*o c»f v. 

Detivtrd N 
OROLK DIVISION, 

JUL 5 1900 



64806 



Entered according to an Act of Congress in the year L900, by 

BEN M. BOGARD, 

In the office of the Librarian, Washington, D. C. 



DEDICATION. 



To Rocky Ridge Baptist Church,- Trigg County, Ky., my 
first pastorate after leaving college, and all of the other 
churches to which I have ministered, viz., Princeton, Har- 
mony, Fulton, and Wingo, in Kentucky; and Charleston, 
Mo., and Searcy. Ark.: together with those brethren and 
sisters whose kindness has made it possible for me to suc- 
ceed as a preacher of the Gospel, this book is affectionately 
dedicated. 

The Author. 



CONTENTS, 



CHAPTER I.— Life of A. C. Dayton, with a sermon 

on "The Existence of God." Pages 13—17 

CHAPTER II.— Life of Richard Fuller, with a sermon 

on "The Desire of All Nations." Pages 30—36 

CHAPTER III.— Life of William Vaughan, with an 

essay on "The Law and The Gospel." Pages 64 — 70 

CHAPTER IV.— Life of A. P. Williams, with an essay 

on "Regeneration." Pages 82 — 87 

CHAPTER V.— Life of James P. Boyce, with a dis- 
cussion of "Divine Decrees." Pages 92—100 

CHAPTER VI.— Life of W. E. Penn, with a sermon 

on "The Divinity of Christ." Pages 118—123 

CHAPTER VII.— Life of J. B. Moody, with an essay 
on "Conditions of Receiving the Holy Spirit for 
Service." Pages 113—147 

CHAPTER VIII.— Life of T. T. Eaton, with a discus- 
sion of "Baptism," and an editorial on "The 
Philadelphia Confession of Faith. ' ' Pages . 172—176—194 

CHAPTER IX.— Life of J. R. Graves, with a sermon 

on "Effects of Baptism." Pages 198—210 

CHAPTER X.— Life of J. B. Jeter, with an editorial 

on "Communion." Pages 224 — 227 



8 Contents. 

CHAPTER XI.— Life of S. H. Ford, with an essay on 

the "Invisible Church Theory." Pages. . .234—239—249 

CHAPTER XII.— Life of J. M. Pendleton, with his 
famous tract on '"An Old Landmark Reset." 
Pages 253—266 

CHAPTER XIII.— Life of John A. Broadus, with a 

sermon on '"Glad Giving." Pages 312 — 317 

CHAPTER XIV.— Life of J. S. Coleman, with a ser- 
mon on "The Work of Baptists an Urgent Work." 
Pages 333—346 

CHAPTER XV.— Life of J. T. Christian, with essay 
on "What Baptists Have Done for the World." 
Pages 377—381 

CHAPTER XVI.— Life of W. P. Harvey, with a ser- 
mon on "Baptists in History." Pages 404 — 406 

CHAPTER XVII.— Life of J. N. Hall, with speech on 

"The State of the Dead." Pages 441—448 



INTRODUCTION. 



This book is a history, an album, and a collection 
of the choicest sermons and essays. It is a history 
of our great leaders who have fought hard and long 
for Bible principles and doctrines, and by their con- 
secrated, and, in some instances, heroic lives, have 
shown themselves to be worthy of the title: Pil- 
lars of Orthodoxy. 

The arrangement of the book is such that the 
reader can study separately the lives of each of 
these great men and read the specimen sermon or 
essay without reference to any of the others. Each 
life sketch is complete in itself, and no one chapter 
is dependent on another. The life sketch of Rich- 
ard Fuller, and his great sermon on the "Desire of 
All Nations," for instance, is a complete chapter 
to itself, without reference to anything else in the 
book. This feature enables the busy reader to read 
a chapter at a time, and there is nothing lost by the 
long intervals between his opportunities to read. 
In a book where one chapter is directly connected 
with another, much is lost by failing to read straight 
through. The last chapter can be read first in this 
book and nothing will be lost by it. 

It is always a pleasure to look into the face of 
a great man. There is something elevating about 
it. The pictures of these men, "who seem to be 

(9) 



10 Introduction. 

pillars" (Gal. 2:9), are the very best that can be 
obtained. The reader, therefore, while he studies 
the life, may look into the faces of these men who 
have made so much glorious history. By that 
means these pillars of orthodoxy will seem to be old 
friends, and it will make their life work seem more 
real. 

It can be safely assumed that the sermons and 
essays, published as specimens in this book, are the 
best that have ever been published. Some of them 
are published here for the first time, while others 
have been published and have become famous. It 
is a pleasure to present to the public a volume con- 
taining the very cream of the best thought from the 
strongest men in the Baptist denomination. 

There is J. B. Moody's great essay on "Condi- 
tions of Receiving the Holy Spirit for Service, ' ' 
which is published here for the first time. It alone 
is worth the price of the book. There is J. T. 
Christian's strong essay on "What Baptists Have 
Done for the World," which is published for the 
first time. Then there are other sermons and essays 
of great value that can be found only in this vol- 
ume. 

The published sermons and essays that are here 
reissued are, without exception, such as should be 
preserved, and will be valuable additions to any 
one's library. 

Besides the aforementioned merits, may be men- 
tioned the fact that the discussion of Scripture doc- 
trines are such that the book, as a whole, becomes 



Introduction. 11. 

almost a complete embodiment of the theology of 
the New Testament. 

It begins with Dr. Dayton's sermon on the "Exist- 
ence of a God" and "Christ the Savior," by Fuller; 
then there is discussed, by Wm. Yaughan, the 
"Relation of the Law and the Gospel;" then "Re- 
generation^ by A. P. Williams; "Baptism," by 
T. T. Eaton; "The Holy Spirit," by J. B. Moody; 
"The Divinity of Christ" by W. E. Penn, and so 
on to the practical subjects, such as "Glad Gimng" 
by J. A. Broadus; "The Work of Baptists An 
Urgent Work," by that prince of preachers, 
J. S. Coleman; and the book closes with J. N. 
Halls' discussion of the "State of the Bead." 

Other great articles by S. H. Ford, J. M. Pendle- 
ton, J. R. Graves and others might have special 
mention. In fact it is hard to decide which one is 
the best, because all are of the very best, and they 
will have to be rated by the individual taste of the 
reader. 

If, by sending out this book, I may be the instru- 
ment of doing good, of preserving the names and 
deeds of these noble men, and of helping in estab- 
lishing my brethren in the faith, and of leading 
some wandering soul from darkness to light, I shall 
be well paid for the unusual labor put into its prep- 
aration. Very truly yours, 

Ben M. Bogard. 



PILLARS OF ORTHODOXY, OR 
DEFENDERS OF THE FAITH. 



CHAPTER I. 

A Sketch of the Life and Labors of 
Dr. A. C. Dayton.* 

Amos Cooper Dayton, the author of "Theodosia 
Ernest" and the "Infidel's Daughter," was the sec- 
ond son of Jonathan and Phoebe Dayton, and born 
in Plainfield, New Jersey, September 4, 1813. 

His life up to his sixteenth year was spent on his 
fathers farm "in plain living and high thinking. " 
Before he was seven years old he showed a passion- 
ate love for books, and the first money he ever 
earned, by hauling a load of nuts to the village mar- 
ket, was at once invested in a grammar and arith- 
metic. "Our choices are our destiny. Nothing is 
ours that our choices have not made ours." 

The little lad chose learning and a useful life, 
shaping his future toward those ends. 

At twelve years of age he joined the Presbyte- 
rian church, of which his parents were members. 
When sixteen he was forced to leave school on ac- 
count of an accident that came near destroying his 
eyesight. He worked his way, however, through 
the medical college in New York after this misfor- 

* No picture of Dr. Dayton could be secured. 

(13) 



14 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

tune, and received his diploma in the twenty-second 
year of his age. 

When traveling for his health in the Southern 
States he met, and after a brief courtship, married 
Lucy Harrison, third daughter of Capt. R. P. and 
Mrs. Eliza Harrison, of Shelbyville, Tenn. 

The wedded pair left at once for Florida, where 
the young physician meant to practice his profes- 
sion, and, if possible, regain his health. It was 
already feared that he had consumption. 

In 1852 Dr. Dayton became a Baptist. How he 
was led to make this change he tells in full in his 
last diary, kept from '52 to '64; and the painful 
struggles through which "Theodosia" passed were 
not creations of his imagination, but were a recital 
of his own experiences. 

It was at this time, during a long and serious 
illness, that he resolved to preach the Gospel of 
Ohrist. 

In his journal he writes: 

"It was the fondly cherished hope of my parents 
that my life should be devoted to the great work of 
the ministry. They intended, on account of this, 
to give me the benefit of a liberal education, and 
failed to carry out their design only because I lost 
health and eyesight at such an early age. 

"When I was under such deep conviction in '42 
this was one of the great wrongs which I felt I had 
done. I had not employed my time and talents in 
spreading the truths of God's Word, but had 
wasted my life in other and comparatively useless 
labors." 



A Sketch of the Life and Labors of Dr. A. C. Dayton. 15 

Id September, '52, on the Sabbath following his 
baptism, he preached his first sermon in the little 
Baptist church at Shelbyville, Tenn. His theme 
was "The Love of God." Singularly enough, this 
first sermon was also his last. 

Only two Sabbaths before he went home he se- 
lected it from a collection of sermons where it had 
lain for years, and once more told with almost 
heavenly inspiration of the "love of Christ that 
passeth knowledge." 

In 1855 he removed from Shelbyville to Nash- 
ville, Tenn., upon being offered the office of Corre- 
sponding Secretary of the Bible Board of the 
Southern Baptist Convention. A few years later 
this was given up, and the duties of the associate 
editor of the Tennessee Baptist and of an author 
absorbed much of his time. He served several 
churches as monthly pastor as well. 

It was now that "Theodosia Ernest" was pub- 
lished that brought him fame for all time. 

"The Infidel's Daughter" followed, and various 
smaller works on denominational subjects. 

In '59 he had a terrible illness, and from this he 
never fully recovered. 

In '62 I find this record in his journal: 

"1 can walk once more. Oh, what a blessing to 
\>e able to walk — to stand up to preach ! Once 1 
had to sit in my chair. God has indeed done great 
things for me, and I try to give him thanks." 

In '61 the horrors of the civil war drove him 
from home. In the spring of '63 he was offered 



16 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

the presidency of Houston Female College, in the 
thriving town of Perry, Ga., and here his last days 
were spent in teaching and preaching. 

He died in great peace on June 11, 1865, and 
was buried in the cemetery at this place. His 
funeral discourse was preached by his dearly- 
beloved brother in the ministry, Rev. B. F. Tharpe, 
who died in the year 1899. They sleep together 
now under the Southern pines, whose mournful 
music is their requiem. 

Dr. Dayton left behind him at the time of his 
death a large and helpless family, an invalid wife, 
five daughters and three sons. One son, Robert 
H., and a daughter, Mary Hand, have followed him 
to the better land in the last few years. 

The oldest daughter, Laura, well known as the 
writer of a number of popular Sunday-school books, 
and as the consecrated leader of the Baptist and 
Reflector's, Young South, is now the widow of 
Albert Eakin and lives in Chattanooga. 

The next in age, Lucie, is also a writer, and has 
been a contributor of stories to nearly all our Bap- 
tist papers for twenty years. Her last book, 
Thread of Gold, has added much to her reputation. 
She is the wife of Rev. J. M. Phillips, D. D., pas- 
tor of the Baptist church at Mossy Creek, Tenn., 
for the past four years. The other two daughters 
are Mrs. T. S. Stock, of Mississippi, and Mrs. W. 
W. Kannon, of Tennessee. 

Of the two sons, John is a prosperous merchant 
of Chattanooga; Lawson a highly thought-of lawyer 
of Shelbyville. 



THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. 

BY DR. A. C. DAYTON. 

Some years ago a lawyer who professed to be an 
infidel came one day into the office of a professional 
man, and seeing a tract lying upon his table, he 
picked it up and read aloud its title, ''The Life of a 
Christian," and laying it down again immediately, 
added, "Otherwise the life of a fool.^ 

Some young gentlemen who were present laughed 
at this and thought it very witty. Witty perhaps 
it was, but was it true f 

Who is the fool ? 

Even supposing Christianity is false and the Bible 
an imposture, that there is no God and death is an 
eternal sleep, it would by no means follow that all 
who hold the contrary are fools, for it has some- 
times happened that the wisest men have been de- 
ceived, and besides, one may be allowed to think 
that the evidence that was sufficient to enlist the 
faith of such men as Locke and Newton, Milton 
and Bacon and others of their stamp, men who, in 
power of reasoning intellect, in rigid, clear analy- 
sis and logical deduction, stand among our modern 
would-be philosophers like giants among pigmies — 
the evidence, I say, which was sufficient to convince 
such men might reasonably be thought sufficient to 
2 (17) 



13 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

justify a common mind in giving its assent without 
incurring the charge of either silliness or insanity. 

No one can prove that there is no God. No one 
can prove that Christianity is not true. It is impos- 
sible in the very nature of things to prove such a 
negative. All that can by possibility be truly said 
is that we have not evidence enough to prove its 
truth. Let us grant this. Its truth is still possible. 
It may be even probable. Who then is the fool? 
Let us examine. 

Sorrow is in the world; disappointment, distress 
and grief of heart will come upon us here. This is 
true whether the Bible be true or false. Now who 
is best prepared to struggle with this "sea of trou- 
bles," he who sees in the events of life the blind, 
unguided, objectless impulses of ungoverned chance, 
or he who looks confidingly to Heaven, and hears 
«ven in the whirlwind and the storm of sorrow his 
Father's voice, exclaiming, "All things shall work 
together for the good of those who love me ?" 

Death is in the world. Alas, he often strikes the 
loveliest and the dearest — the friends of our child- 
hood, the companions of our youth. But is there 
bow such proof? Are any men such fools ? 

Go out 



•when night with starry wings 



O'ershadows all the earth and skies, 
Like some bright, beauteous bird whose wings 
Are sparkling with unnumbered eyes." 

Look up to the broad blue expanse of Heaven. 
Count the stars; observe their order; study their 



The Existence of God. 19 

motions. Take witli you the astronomer whose 
patient study has determined beyond all doubt or 
cavil that each of these glittering points in the infini- 
tude of space is a vast globe like the mighty sun 
that shines upon our earth. Let him instruct you 
in the fact that countless millions more of these 
wondrous orbs of light lie still beyond the range of 
mortal sight; that each of these is probably like 
our own sun, the center of a vast system of worlds, 
revolving round it with their ponderous mass un- 
jarringly and ever in their own appointed track age 
after age. Then while you look and while you 
think say if there is no God, if all this came by 
chance, if all by chance continues. Surely he is 
a fool who says there is no God. 

Look abroad over the earth we dwell on. How 
admirably it is fitted for the habitation and the sus- 
tenance of the thousands of living things that 
swarm upon its surface, which soar in the air above 
it and float in the waters beneath it. Each is fitted 
for the place and the condition in which we find it, 
and all the arrangements of light and shade, of 
night and day, of seedtime and harvest, of cold 
and heat, rain and sunshine, evince the working of 
a wise, beneficent and all-controlling mind. All 
that we see in a careless glance, all that we learn by 
the most careful study of the works of nature shows 
an intelligent and infinite designer. The world is 
full of God. God looks down upon us from the 
wondrous stars. God blows upon us with his 
mighty winds and breathes upon us with the balmy 



20 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

breeze. God shines upon us in his glorious sun. 
God thunders in the storm and rains upon us in the 
shower. God giveth life and breath to every living 
thing, and he must be indeed a fool who says there 
is no God. 

Let man but look within himself. Let him con- 
sider all the evidences of wise, benevolent designs 
which his own frame exhibits, and if his mind be 
right he can not help but feel that such a wondrous 
structure was not the work of chance. 

Was it by chance that the brain and other organs, 
a slight injury of which would seriously affect the 
whole economy of life, are so carefully protected by 
their bony coverings % Was it by chance that the 
arteries which bear to distant parts the lifeblood 
from the heart are placed in such positions as will 
expose them least to any injury ? Is it by chance 
that in those parts where they must be exposed, as 
in the forearm and the hands and feet, they are so 
multiplied, divided and intermingled, communicat- 
ing so with one another, the destruction of a part 
from any accident will not endanger the life of the 
part ? 

Was it by chance that the framework of bone was 
made so as to give the greatest strength in the 
smallest space ? 

Was it by chance that those wonderful con- 
trivances, the muscles and tendons and joints, were 
so arranged as to give him the freest and most per- 
fect control of all his motions with the least ex- 
penditure of strength ? 



The Existence of God. 21 

Was it by chance that his eye was arranged with 
such consummate knowledge of the laws of light 
that it infinitely surpasses, as a mere optical instru- 
ment, anything which all the skill and science of 
the philosopher has been able to suggest I 

Was it by chance that the organs of all his other 
senses are so admirably adapted to the objects of 
which they are intended to take cognizance \ 

God shows himself in man. God speaks in every 
breath. God moves in every motion. God beats 
in every bounding pulse. The man himself is in a 
thousand ways a constant living evidence of an oil- 
wise, all-kind and powerful creator. And he is 
surely a fool who says there is no God. 

There is another thought. Man's body is not all 
of man. He has a mind. He observes. He thinks. 
He feels. His actions show and his own conscious- 
ness declares that his mind is endowed with certain 
faculties or powers. First among these, exerting 
over the race of man a more extensive and control- 
ling influence than any other, is his instinctive pro- 
pensity to worship. His nature is such that he 
must have a God. In all times and among all peo- 
ple this is a striking and a most wonderful truth. 
The remains which tell us of the power and opu- 
lence of the nations of the olden times are mostly 
the ruins of their temples. Time has passed along 
and with his iron heel ground out from the face of 
the earth every other vestige of their power. Their 
commerce has left behind no token. Their military 
prowess has left no fortress where once embattled 



22 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

hosts engaged in maddening conflict. Their kingly 
pomp is gone. The palaces or the nobles have 
crumbled into dust. But there stand still in soli- 
tary grandeur the mighty ruins of the temples which 
they built in honor of what they called God. 

I grant you that this instinct to worship is a blind 
and darkened instinct. But if there be no God to 
worship whence is this power of the human mind ? 
Nature hath made no otherwhere such blundering 
work. If she have given us eyes it is because there 
is also light by which we may see with our eyes. If 
she have given us ears it is because there are things 
to hear. If we have love of friends it is because 
we live in society. If we have conscience it is be- 
cause there is a right and wrong in human conduct. 
So if we have the instinct to worship, it is itself a 
proof that he is a fool who says there is no God for 
us to worship. 

If it be said that it was nature that unrolled the 
star-bestudded sky; that it was nature that formed 
the million suns and rolls forever round them their 
ponderous worlds; that it is nature that controls the 
ever-varying seasons and endues all living things as 
best befits their place and object in the universe; 
that it is nature that formed us as we are, so ''fear- 
fully and wonderfully made;" that it is nature 
teaches us to look above ourselves and search for 
the superior power that we may worship it — I grant 
it, if you choose; but tell me now, I pray you, what 
is nature f 

If nature is the cause of all these marvelous 



The Existence of God. 23 

things, then nature is intelligent, for these things in 
themselves give evidence of an intelligent first 
cause; nay, of an infinite intelligence, which sees 
the end from the beginning and is ignorant of noth- 
ing. 

If nature is the cause of all these things, then is 
nature all-powerful, for these things show evidence 
in themselves that the power which made, continues 
and controls them is almighty. 

If nature is the cause of all these things, then 
nature is benevolent, for there is evidence in all the 
arrangements which we can fully understand that 
the author of them was kind, as it was wise and 
powerful. 

If nature then be infinitely wise and powerful 
and good, nature is God, and tell me now why- 
should we take the laws by which God manages the 
universe, the laws which we familiarly call the laws 
of nature, and weave with them a veil to hang be- 
fore our vision and hide from our view that God 
who is the author and the executor of those laws ? 
Nature is nothing but the manifestation of the power 
and wisdom and benevolence of God. The laws of 
nature are only the rules by which God works in 
carrying out his plans. Nature is but the working- 
of nature's mighty God, and he is but a fool who 
puts the visible effect in place of the almighty Great 
First Cause. 

But there are others to whom we may with strict 
propriety apply this term. They grant there is a 
God, wise, powerful and kind, and that he has 



24 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

placed us here, but has made to us no revelation of 
his character or will, or of our origin or destiny. 
He has created us and all the wondrous things 
above us and about us, and given us, with other quali- 
ties of mind, the instinct which forces us to feel 
there is a God worthy of our worship and requiring 
our adoration, but left us in utter darkness as to his 
nature and our relations with him. 

These men assert (as Christians do) that God is 
wise and kind and cares for the welfare of his chil- 
dren. They say <as Christians do) that the whole 
face of nature abounds with the evidence of his 
goodness. They see it in the loaded tree, the teem- 
ing earth, the fruitful shower and the balmy breeze. 
They see it in the grassy carpet of the earth. They 
see it in the beautiful flowers that deck the fields. 
They see it in the vast variety of hill and dale, of 
fountain and fresh shade with which he has adorned 
the earth to render it delightful as the dwelling 
place of men. They see that he has provided not 
only for his necessities, but for his pleasures; not 
only for the continuance of life, but for its enjoy- 
ments. They say that God is good. Why then 
should he not gratify the reasonable desires of his 
children ? While he provides so bountifully for 
their physical comfort and delight, why should he 
deprive them of the food of the soul ? Why keep 
them in ignorance of what concerns them more 
than all things else to know ? 

Am I to live hereafter, or when I lie down in the 
grave is that the end of all my joys and sorrows, of 
all my hopes and fears ? 



The Existence of God. 25 

If I am to live hereafter in what condition will it 
be \ And will my conduct now from day to day 
effect my coming destiny ? 

What kind of conduct does my God approve and 
what does lie dislike, or is he indifferent as to 
what I do I 

If I have offended him how can I regain his favor 
and regard \ Will he forgive me ? If he will, 
upon what terms \ If not. what is to be the conse- 
quence of his anger ? 

These questions and such as these greatly con- 
cern the sons of men. It will hardly be pretended 
that God could not answer them if he would. He 
might, in many ways we can conceive of, make 
known to us the truth. 

Is he not then a fool who, while he owns that 
God is good, denies that he would make a revela- 
tion of his will \ 

But if he say he has virtually made such a reve- 
lation, but not that which is contained in the Bible 
of the Christian; that reason is the celestial lamp 
hnng out by the hand of the Almighty to guide us 
to the truth, reason itself will answer that he is a 
fool, for all experience shows that reason has never 
yet been able to illuminate the darkness which, on 
subjects such as these, covers the human mind. The 
lamp of reason is too dim; its light is too faint. It 
required the full splendor of the glorious sun of 
righteousness to dissipate the mists and clouds that 
hung about the character of God and the destiny of 
man. 



26 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Fault. 

Even the first great truth which all admit, "That 
the maker of all things is good;' 1 this fact which 
no one, Christian or infidel, would in this land now 
venture to deny; this fact which seems so plainly 
taught in every page of nature that reason could 
not fail to read it; even this simple truth reason 
did not discover. The nations on whom the sun- 
light of the Bible never shone have never worshiped 
such a God as ours. Their Gods were the embodi- 
ment of power, cruelty, revenge and lust. This was 
true of the most polished nations of the ancient 
times. In all their wealth of intellectual lore they 
never conceived of any such God. He was to them 
indeed the unknown God till Paul declared him 
unto them. And it is equally true now. Go to the 
nations in Asia, in Africa, or in America, who have 
not learned the character of God directly or indi- 
rectly from the Bible, who are still in all the dark- 
ness of reason, and ask ten thousand of their wisest 
men the character of God, and you will not learn as 
much of truth concerning it as from any little 
company of poor, unlettered Christians in the land 
of Bibles. Reason never has taught it, reason 
could not find it out, and he who trusts to reason 
only for instruction on these subjects of eternal and 
overwhelming interest may well be called a fool. 

If, then, there is good cause to believe that God 
would make a revelation of himself, and reason is 
proved to be an insufficient guide, he is a fool who 
does not take the Bible as the revelation which it 
claims to be. There is no other pretended revela- 



The Existence of God. 27 

tion which can claim to rival it. It stands alone in 
the lofty purity of its morality, in the stern, un- 
yielding strictness of its laws; in the heavenly sub- 
limity of its conceptions of the Deity. The excel- 
lence which other systems have they have borrowed 
from this. This is the light of the world. It is 
here that life and immortality are brought to light. 
It is here and here alone that we can learn how we 
may please the God who made us. This is the rev- 
elation of his will. Here we can learn and here 
alone how we may be forgiven for our offenses. 
How God can be just and yet can justify the sinner 
who believes and obeys the Gospel. This Bible is 
the word of God, and he who does not take it for 
such may well be called a fool. 

And, my brethren, is there not in some of us a 
folly which surpasseth this? We believe there is a 
God, holy, just and good. We take this book to be 
a revelation of his will. We believe there is a 
Heaven. Are we living in such a way as to fit us 
to enjoy its holy pleasures \ We believe there is a 
hell. Are we not careless whether we shall ever 
finally escape its tortures ? We believe there is an 
eternity, an endless eternity of perfect joy or terri- 
ble distress awaiting us at death. Yet are not many 
of us such fools as to live here as though we should 
live always here, and spend our time and employ 
our labors in laying up treasures upon earth, while 
we give scarce any attention to the eternity com- 
pared to which time is but as a "forgotten cir- 
cumstance?" 



28 Pillars of OrtJiodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

If we believe it, let us live as though we did be- 
lieve it. Let us give the scoffers no room to say 
that we are even greater fools than they, even ad- 
mitting our doctrine to be true. 

My dear impenitent and unbelieving friend, there 
is a God and the Bible is fhe word of God, whether 
you helieve it or not. Your belief or disbelief will 
not affect the truth or its results. You may doubt, 
you may deny; you may even scorn and hate the 
truth, but it will not help you. There is a God and 
you can not escape from out his hand. There is a 
God, and if there be, and this Bible is his word, 
how fearful is your case. 

Here is your folly: If 1 am wrong, if I am de- 
ceived; if my reason has been imposed upon; if 
Bacon and Locke, Newton and Butler and Paley 
and others of their stamp, philosophers, logicians 
and reasoners by profession — if these men were im- 
posed upon by cunningly-devised fables, and all the 
world of Christians are mistaken, we are at least 
no worse off than you, since the true Christian is a 
better man and a happier man for being such. He 
has his pleasant hopes, he has his joyful anticipa- 
tions, while he lives and dies in the triumphant 
hope of an eternal weight of glory. He is at 
death as well off as any of you. He will be no 
more conscious of disappointment than you are. for 
by your own admission he will have ceased to be. 
The worms that feed upon his flesh will no more 
torture him than you. He will feel the coldness 
and dampness of the grave no more than you. He 



The Existence of God. 29 

loses nothing which you do not lose, and he gains 
his present hope and his triumphant death. But if 
you are wrong and it should at last turn out that 
he is right — and remember you can not prove that 
lie is not — then where are you \ If it should prove 
true that there is a God. how will you fare who 
have insulted and despised him \ If it should prove 
true that the Bible is his word, how will you fare 
who have rejected and ridiculed it ? If Jesus was 
a Teacher come from God, how will you fare when, 
as hs foretold, he shall come again to judgment ? 

If death should be no dreamless sleep, but only 
the door to a more active and never ending life; if it 
should prove true that there is a glorious Heaven 
and that there is a fearful hell, how will you fare 
who are neglecting, ridiculing and despising the 
only means by which you might escape from one 
and gain the other \ 

Oh, you will not call the Christian a fool then; 
you will not then esteem it folly to have led a godly 
life, a life of faith and penitence and holiness. You 
will not then think it folly to have secured an inter- 
est in the atoning blood of him whom you now pro- 
fess to regard as an impostor. Then is it not the 
part of folly, of the most egregious folly, to live 
and act in such a way that you may have occasion 
to lament forever, while you might live so that the 
chance for life and endless blessedness would be 
yours, and the worst that could possibly happen 
would be no worse than what, according to your 
own belief, must now assuredly happen? 



CHAPTER II. 
RICHARD FULLER, D. D. 

In his Bible is found, in his own handwriting, 
this record: "Richard Fuller, Born April, 1800 / 
Born Again, Aug. 27, 1832." The place of his 
two births was Beaufort, S. C. 

His early education was conducted by Elder 
Brantly, D. D., of Beaufort, and he afterward 
studied at Harvard, and in his class of eighty stu- 
dents stood first in his studies. 

Upon his return from Harvard he entered the 
practice of law, and he soon became one of the 
most successful lawyers in the State. His success 
along that line is another answer to the slander that 
men go to preaching when they can't successfully 
do anything else. 

Mr. Fuller's religious experience was somewhat 
unusual. He first united with the Episcopal church, 
and his keen eye discovered that only immersion 
was baptism. He, therefore, demanded immersion 
at the hands of the Episcopal clergyman and was 
immersed. However, under the preaching of Eld. 
Daniel Barker, the famous evangelist, he was led to 
see that he had never been regenerated, and that he 
was in the "gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity." 
He was radically converted and united with the 
Baptist church in Beaufort, S. C, and was baptized 

(30) 




RICHARD FULLER, D.D. 



Bichard Fuller, D.D. 31 

by the authority of that church in the year 1832. 
His conversion was so radical, his new life was so 
distinct, that he could with perfect confidence make 
the record in his Bible, already referred to: "Rich- 
ard Fuller, Born, April, 1805 ; Born Again, Aug. 
27, 1832." There might be doubt about the exact 
day of his physical birth, and the exact day is not 
given in that record, but there was perfect certainty 
about "Aug. 27, 1832," being the exact date of his 
spirital birth. 

His Episcopal immersion was not looked upon by 
the convert nor by the church as being valid baptism, 
and, therefore, he was baptized by the authority of 
a Scriptural church. There could be no better 
index to the doctrinal character of the Beaufort 
church, and of Bichard Fuller, than the fact that 
alien immersion was not considered by them as valid 
baptism. If they had regarded the Episcopal 
church as being a church, in the Bible sense, they 
would have accepted its baptism as valid, hence we 
are forced to the conclusion that the Beaufort church 
and Richard Fuller, at that time, regarded only 
Baptist churches as being Scriptural churches. That 
puts the church and the man in the list of churches 
now known as Land markers. He was rebaptized 
by Eld. Wyer, then pastor of the First Baptist 
church, Savannah, Ga. 

Almost immediately after his conversion he 
entered the ministry and was elected pastor of the 
church in Beaufort, where he preached for over 
fourteen years; he afterward was called to the care 



32 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

of the Seventh Baptist church, Baltimore, Md., 
where he preached twenty-four years, and then he 
organized the Eutaw Place church, in the same city, 
and preached for it until his death — five years. He, 
therefore, spent forty-three years with three 
churches, his shortest pastorate was five years and 
his longest twenty-four. This is a remarkable 
record and is another illustration of the value of 
long pastorates. 

Dr. Fuller was one of the greatest pulpit orators 
that has ever lived. Many regarded him as being 
the greatest. Certainly there were not more than 
two or three others that were anything near his 
equal, and there was only one that anybody thought 
could surpass him — the matchless J. R. Graves was 
regarded by some as being his superior, but. it is 
fair to say that many others thought Fuller was 
superior to Graves. Perhaps the one who was 
heard last was regarded as the greater. 

As a debater Dr. Fuller was invincible. His 
great discussion with Bishop England, of Charles- 
ton, S. C, on the claims of the Roman Catholic 
church, won for him the reputation of a most power- 
ful and skillful controversialist. His published 
debate on the slavery question with Dr. Francis 
Wayland is a remarkable book. His language is 
choice, his temper excellent, his manner graceful. 
Notwithstanding the fact of the slavery agitation, 
which had unsettled everybody and everything and 
threatened to disrupt the Union, he was as calm as 
a May day. Not a harsh word was spoken, not a 



Richard Fuller, D.D. 33 

thing was said of which he might be ashamed in 
after years. As gentle as a refined woman, as fear- 
less as a lion, that was Richard Fuller. He did not 
seek controversy, neither did he belong to the senti- 
mental crowd which is opposed to debates; a mighty 
man who stood like a great pillar of strength for 
nearly half a century. 

As a writer Dr. Fuller was eminent, and his 
writings were saturated with the classic spirit; his 
well-balanced sentences and his illustrations were 
superior to those of almost any other theological 
writer of his time. His published sermons, one of 
which is published at the close of this sketch, are 
models of oratorical beauty. Of course these pub- 
lished sermons can only give the words of the great 
man, while the flash of the eye, the gestures, the 
expression of the face, the general bearing in the 
pulpit, the tones of the voice, and the very pres- 
ence of the living man are all lost, and yet the 
printed sermons are great sermons. His work on 
"The Terms of Baptism and Communion"*' 'is a 
book of great worth. His articles for the religious 
newspapers and magazines were noted for beauty of 
diction, strength of argument and soundness of doc- 
trine. 

In an address at his funeral Dr. Brantly, his 
co-laborer in Baltimore, said: "To these natural 
powers, improved by diligent culture and varied 
reading, Grace added a love for Christ and a love 
for souls so intense as to pervade his whole being. 
When ordinary men were indifferent, he felt; when 

3 



34 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

others only felt, he glowed; and when others were 
glowing, he was all aflame. It 

was this fiery working of the unseen machinery 
which urged the whole man onward, right on- 
ward, to his object and made him a very prince in 
the pulpit/* 

His love for souls was shown in his work among 
the negroes. He often said that he would rather be 
the means of the conversion of one poor negro 
than to please ten thousand white people. 

He was a hard student throughout life, and this, 
perhaps, was the great secret of his successful life. 
He remarked once to Dr. Brantly: "I am the 
hardest student in the State. My sermons usually 
cost me three days of careful study, beginning in 
the morning and working all day." That left him 
three days in the week for general study, visiting 
and literary work. 

Just before his death he said : "To one in my 
condition the chief question is, 'If a man die shall 
he live again V The world does not believe it. 
The church only half believes it. But 1 know it 
and I rejoice in it. When I am gone, go speak to 
the people and tell them Jesus Christ has abolished 
death and brought life and immortality to light in 
the Gospel." A short time after that he said, 
"Put this down : In a time of great trial my faith 
is perfect." When told of the great number who 
had been saved under his preaching, and reminded 
of the fact that this ought to cheer him, he said : 
' ■' Poor creature ! poor sinner:!^ How he felt his 



Richard Fuller, D.D. 35 

own unworthiness ! The last audible words he 
spoke were : "Lord Jesus, keep us near thee; make 
us perfect, and thine shall be the glory forever and 
ever, amen." Jesus had called for him and he 
went home, and we are reminded of the words of 
Jesus when he said : "Father, I will that those thou 
hast given me be with me where I am." 

At his residence, 87 Park avenue, Baltimore, 
Md., on Friday morning at 9 o'clock, Oct. 20, 1874, 
Richard Fuller "fell on sleep." His funeral took 
place in the Eutaw Place church, and addresses 
were made by Dr. W. G. Brantly and Dr. J. W. 
M. Williams. He was buried in the Greenmount 
Cemetery, and his body awaits the resurrection. 
"Well done, good and faithful servant." 



THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS.* 

"And the Desire of all nations shall come."— Haggai ii :7. 

The text foretold a strange phenomenon. It de- 
clared that the High and Lofty One who inhabits 
eternity would be seen among sinful men; that he 
who from everlasting had dwelt in light unap- 
proachable, would assume some form, and make his 
entrance upon this globe; that the invisible and ever- 
glorious, whom no man had seen, or could see — the 
Eternal, forever concealed behind stars and suns, 
would veil his effulgence, and come into the world. 
Such is the prophecy; and if this wonderful event, 
dimly anticipated, could agitate and transport the 
inmost spirit of patriarch and prophet, flooding 
them with rapture, what should be our emotions 
now — now when he has come; when we have seen 
"the Brightness of the Father's glory." "come 
forth from the Father, and come into the world;*' 
when he who, "being in the form of God, thought 
it not robbery to be equal with God," has "made 
himself of no reputation, and taken upon him the 
form of a servant, and been made in the likeness of 
men, and being found in fashion as a man, has 
humbled himself and become obedient unto death, 
even the death of the cross;' ' when we can say, 
"without controversy great is the mystery of godli- 

*Preached before the Southern Baptist Convention, at its first aim not 
session, in Bichmond. June lo. 184(>. 

(36) 



The Desire of All Nations. 37 

ness, God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the 
Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, 
believed on in the world, received up into glory;" 
when, with adoring confidence, each of us can ex- 
claim. -'This is a faithful saying and worthy of all 
acceptance, that Christ Jesns came into the world 
to save sinners, of whom I am chief?" 

Of this stupendous and overmastering deed of 
love, how can I worthily speak, who am a man of 
unclean lips, and live among a people of unclean 
lips I Well have we done, to commence from it a 
new era in the biography of our race. Amid the 
wreck of past ages, that transaction stands alone by 
itself, in unique and solitary grandeur: and stand 
it forever shall, amid the waste of future ages, the 
great epoch in the cycles of eternity, the master- 
piece of infinite power, and wisdom, and love, to 
absorb our expanding souls long after this globe 
shall have been purged by fire, and when all its 
records and annals shall have been forgotten. 
Turning, then, from the mysterious, unutterable 
glories of this ^new thing which God has made in 
the earth." let us come to what we may compass by 
our thoughts; let us confine ourselves to the very 
significant title applied to the Redeemer in our text; 
regarding the term "Desire" as referring to the 
expectation^ and the wants and the happi?iess of the 
whole human family. 

I. First, then, it is a fact deserving more atten- 
tion than has. I think, been bestowed upon it, that 
among the nations there has ever existed a widespread. 



38 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

if not universal expectation of a glorious person to 
he the 'renovator of mankind, and to impress a new 
character on the spirit, habits and morals of the 
earth. A truth this, wholly inexplicable to the 
infidel, but quite incontestable for all that, and to 
every Christian admitting of an easy solution. 

Why, my brethren, such a catastrophe as the 
Fall — who will believe that it could ever be oblit- 
erated from the memory of man ? And if our ruin, 
much more surely would the promise of our redemp- 
tion be transmitted — -a promise which in so peculiar 
a manner assured the guilty that "the seed of the 
woman should bruise the serpent's head," and 
which was performed when, "the fullness of time 
being come, God sent forth his Son, made of a 
woman, made under the law, to redeem them that 
were under the law, that we might receive the 
adoption of sons.'' 

It is a famous question, which I shall not disturb, 
whether the benefits of the atonement by Jesus 
extend to other beings besides man. The Bible 
conveys clear intimations, that among intelligences 
peopling other portions of God's empire, the knowl- 
edge was dispersed, both of the degeneracy of our 
race and of some wonderful expedient for our 
rescue. And if in distant provinces of creation the 
advent of a Saviour into the world was matter of 
adoring study, away with the thought that God 
would leave the posterity of Adam in ignorance of 
a transaction so deeply affecting their destiny, and 
of which this earth w T as to be the theater. Accord- 



The Desire of All Nations. 39 

ingly we find that such a revelation was not only 
given, but perpetuated. And those of you who are 
acquainted with antiquity know that in all ages and 
among nations most distant from each other the 
expectation of a deliverer has been cherished, and 
cherished everywhere as an express communication 
from heaven. 

The truth is that scarcely had the fall occurred 
when God began to announce a retriever from the 
ruins of that fall; and in antediluvian ages we see 
him so busied with this great promise that, studied 
by the light of faith, the history of the world even 
then will appear as the first act in the grand drama 
of redemption. It is a touching proof of God's 
compassion that, before the sentence was uttered 
against our guilty parents, the gospel was preached 
to them, and its golden notes mingled tenderly with 
those accents of wrath which otherwise might have 
driven them to despair. Directly after this, sacri- 
fices seem to have commenced — an institution by 
which an innocent victim was to be immolated for 
the sins of man, a thing so entirely above the dic- 
tates of reason that we at once recognize in it the 
appointment of heaven and a type of the Messiah. 
The offering of Cain was as choice as that of Abel; 
the latter, however, was an expiatory sacrifice, and 
the conduct of God to the two worshipers was a 
proclamation never to be forgotten, that without the 
shedding of blood there is no remission of sins; 
hence, kw bv faith Abel offered a more excellent 
sacrifice than Cain. r? In short, brief — to me in- 



40 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

structively, most affectingly brief — as is the record 
of those who lived before the flood, their cares and 
passions, and pleasures, and pains all summed up in 
a few pages, yet the Spirit has supplied one impor- 
tant fact. There were preachers in those days 
whose theme was the same Jesus we preach — Enoch 
especially foretelling his coming and preparing the 
world for his reception. 

From the flood to the call of Abraham we see God 
still occupied in consoling the earth with the prom- 
ise of its great restorer. The Scriptures, indeed, 
declare that the very manner of Noah's escape was 
emblematical of salvation by Christ. "The like 
figure whereunto," says Peter, "even baptism doth 
also now save us; not the putting away of the filth 
of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience 
toward God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. " 
No sooner is that patriarch landed than this second 
father of mankind, by sacrifices of blood, inculcates 
on his family, then the whole population of the 
earth, the faith of the grand atonement. And upon 
all of Jehovah's dispensations at this period we 
discern the plain shining signatures of this illus- 
trious doctrine. Audience is never given to man as 
an innocent being, but always as guilty and through 
the medium of sacrifices. 

Id process of time we find God adopting a singu- 
lar measure. He separates one nation from all the 
nations, choosing them, not because they were more 
in number than any people, but for this peculiar 
purpose, that they might be the depositories of the 



The Desire of All Nations. 41 

"faithful saving, " and might show from afar the 
magnificent redemption to be one day wrought out 
for man. If patriarchs rejoiced it was in anticpa- 
tion of that event — -Abraham desiring to see Christ's 
day, and gladdened by the sight; and Jacob exulting 
over death, as he leaned upon the top of his staff 
and turned his eye to the triumphant Shiloh. If 
prophets were inspired, it was to confirm the faith- 
ful in their aspirations for the Messiah, so much so 
"that the testimony of Jesus was the spirit of 
prophecy" — "the spirit of Christ which was in them 
testifying beforehand the sufferings of Christ and 
the glory that should follow. " Amid the pomp of 
royalty, if monarchs pined with a longing for the 
gratification of which they would have bartered their 
crowns, it was to see him who was all their desire 
and all their salvation. "Many kings have desired 
to see those things which ye see and have not seen 
them, and to hear those things which ye hear and 
have not heard them. " Types, altars, oblations and 
all the gorgeous machinery of the temple were but 
shadows of the promised mercy. In short, wherever 
among the Hebrews "righteous men" were found, 
the consummation of all their desires would have 
been to witness the ingress of the Prince of Peace; 
and in every Hebrew woman's bosom, concealed but 
glowing, there was such an ambition of the honor 
afterward conferred upon Mary that the prophet 
calls the Saviour ^the desire of viomen" — the fond- 
est, highest, holiest dream of the sex, terminating in 
the bliss of becoming; mother to that Son whom a 



42 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

virgin was to bear, whose name would ic be called 
Immanuel, Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, 
Everlasting Father, and of whose government of 
peace there should be no end." 

Up to this point, then, in all ages preceding the 
birth of Christ, you see how that wonderful epiph- 
any was the engrossing theme of piety and inspira- 
tion. And here let me repeat two important 
remarks which have already been made, and which 
we should always take with us when perusing the 
books of the Old Testament. The first is that 
during this period the expectation of a wonderful 
personage to change and mold the destiny of the 
world was not confined to the Jews, but was diffused 
throughout the earth. It was impersonated in 
Melchisedec ; it sustained the sufferer of Idumea, 
who, when all was desolation around and within, 
exclaimed, "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and 
that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth;-' 
it fired the lips of Balaam; it was scattered over 
Asia, Africa, Sicily and the islands of the Archi- 
pelago, and from thence was conveyed to Rome, 
and treasured among those Sibylline oracles which 
even the wisest men revered as sacred, and it pre- 
vailed, as Tacitus and Suetonius inform us, most 
anciently, all over the East. 

This is one striking fact, and the other is the ex- 
istence everywhere of sacrifices and the faith of 
appeasing the Deity by blood, by the substitution of 
the innocent for the guilty. Unite now these two 
truths, and how incontestable is the assertion that 



The Desire of All Nations. -43 

from the fall to the advent of Jesus Christ there was 
a general expectation of the mighty victim of Cal- 
vary, which justifies the application to him of this 
title, "the Desire of all nations.'' 

We come now to the great advent, and as the 
nativity, and afterward the public manifestion of the 
Saviour approach, the truth I am urging becomes 
confirmed on all hands, and the earth is agitated by 
premonitions and prognostications exciting the most 
intense concern. In the West, at Rome, the metrop- 
olis of the earth, and only a few years before the 
appearance of Christ, Julius Caesar seeks to subvert 
the liberties of his country, aspiring to a throne; 
and by what argument is his claim supported i His 
friends appeal to an oracle in the temple predicting 
a king to arise at that time, whose reign should be 
without bounds, and whose government should secure 
the happiness of mankind. And in a work almost 
contemporaneous with the birth at Bethlehem the 
most celebrated of the Latin poets rehearses this 
oracle, declaring it was now about to be accom- 
plished, and employing, as to the wonderful off- 
spring, almost the very images and language of 
Isaiah himself. In the East, the light to enlighten 
the Gentiles is not only seen from afar, but shines 
so clearly that the sages leave their homes and 
studies and repair to the birthplace, doing homage 
to the kingly Star of Jacob. 

Above all, in Judea, and at the scene of this 
amazing mystery, how is everything in commotion,, 
and from every quarter what notes of preparation I 



44 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

Does the Hebrew enter the temple or walk the 
streets of Jerusalem, he sees the most devout and 
venerable of his nation bending' with years, yet 
rejoicing that even their fading eyes should "behold 
the consolation of Israel. " Does he leave the city, 
among the hills and buried in cells upon the mount- 
ains he finds those holy hermits of whom Josephus 
speaks absorbed with the immediate coming of 
Messiah, waiting to form his escort, and vindicating 
their sublime hope by prophecies not to be mistaken. 
From out the dreary depths of the wilderness, and 
along the verdant banks of the Jordan, resounds 
perpetually the voice of a most extraordinary man, 
an austere herald, who has drawn all eyes upon him 
as a prophet "with the spirit and power of Elias, " 
and who still utters the startling cry, "Prepare ye 
the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a 
highway for our God." In fine, my brethren, so 
eager and universal was the expectation* of a great 
deliverer that as soon as John appeared multitudes 
flocked and crowded about him, and the inquiry, 
"Art thou he? art thou he ?" a question never before 
proposed to any of the prophets, now breaks from 
their impatient lips, and if they surrender their con- 
victions it is most reluctantly, and only when the. 
Baptist "confesses and denies not, but confesses that 
he is not the Christ," but merely his harbinger, and 
not worthy to perform even the most menial office, 
such as unloosing his sandals for that exalted per- 



*Luke, iii. 15 : "And as the people were in expectation, and al 
msed in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ," etc. 



The Desire of All Nations. 45 

Nor, my brethren (though it is out of place to 
make the remark here), was the sensation felt by the 
inhabitants of this earth alone. Other and very 
different orders of intelligences were moved at the 
astonishing phenomenon. On the night when the 
Saviour was born, hell, I make no doubt, stood 
aghast and marshaled all its forces, and commenced 
in Herod and the massacre of the children, that 
infernal conspiracy which pursued the Redeemer 
through his life, and seemed to triumph, but was 
most gloriously discomfited at the cross. And all 
heaven, we are expressly informed, was filled with 
a sympathy most thrilling and ecstatic. Man those 
glorious beings had known in Eden, and had loved 
with the love of a brother for a younger sister. 
The dismal hour of man's fall they had witnessed; 
nor can any tell their emotions when, amid the 
bowers of Paradise, there ran that shriek, Death, 
death is in the world ! And now, when the Bright- 
ness of the Father's glory stoops to that world, and 
on such an errand, what wonder and rapture seize 
their adoring thoughts. All along their radiant, 
countless files roll anthems of high exultation, and 
then, wheeling down, they pour upon the listening 
ears of Palestine the music of the skies. 

Yes, my brethren, not only on this scene of his 
love and grief, but in other and distant places were 
felt the communications of unutterable interest when 
the Dayspring from on high visited us. And if, 
when he came, the world knew him not, and hon- 
ored him not, he was not without honor, such as no 



46 Pillar* of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

mere creature can receive. True, no star formed 
by mortal hands would ever glitter upon his breast, 
for lie was to be despised and rejected of men; but 
a star made by eternal hands moves along the 
heavens, and, stopping iu reverence, showers its 
lustre upon his cradle. No illuminated capital nor 
palace hails his approach, for he comes at midnight 
and in an humble village; but "the glory of the 
Lord shines around/' and beams from the Shekinah 
irradiate the earth. No troops of admiring courtiers 
welcome the incarnate God — O no ! low lies his 
head in a manger, and among the herds of the stall; 
but a retinue of strong and immortal cherubim and 
seraphim adore the Lord of glory, and shake the 
night air of Galilee with praises for that birth which 
would give "glory to God in the highest and on 
earth peace, good will toward men." 

The Expectation of all nations shall come. You 
now perceive, my brethren, with what propriety, in 
this view, the Saviour is called "the Desire of all 
nations." As in those regions where the sun is hid 
for months, all console themselves with anticipations 
of his light, and turn instinctively to the point where 
he will appear, and, when the dawn approaches, 
abandon their pursuits and dress themselves in their 
richest garments, and climb the highest hills to greet 
his first rays, so was it with the Son of Righteous- 
ness. The expectation of a deliverer cheered the 
earth in its gloomiest darkness. As the fullness of 
time drew near, the gaze of all settled upon that quar- 
ter where the Luminary was to arise, the pious and 



The Desire of All Nations. 47 

the wise secluded themselves from all their avoca- 
tions, and, in the sublimest faith and loftiest con- 
templations, watched for that morning which was to 
know no night, but forever give light to them who 
sat in darkness and the shadow of death, and guide 
the wretched in the way of peace. 

But it is time to pass to our second article, and to 
consider this title of the Saviour in another view, 
and with reference to the wants of mankind; for, as 
regards these also, he is emphatically ; 'the Desire of 
all nations." 

II. The words rendered ki the Desire of all na- 
tions" mean, in fact, the want, the good needed, 
the grand desideratum of all the people of the earth. 
Nor, were this the place, would it be difficult to vin- 
dicate the text thus considered, both politically and 
socially, and to prove that those nations upon whom 
the gospel shines occupy summits gilded and glad- 
dened by the orb of day. while all others are still in 
the deep valleys not yet penetrated by his rays. 
Why, my brethren, look abroad upon the govern- 
ments of the earth. Who need be told that right- 
eousness exalteth a nation, that Christianity alone 
can inbreed and nourish true patriotism, and that 
whatever be the form of civil polity, it will prove 
a blessing or a scourge, just as rulers obey or violate 
the precepts of the gospel ? And so, too, as to the 
arts and sciences, as to liberty and order, as to every 
virtue which adorns a people (and woe, above all 
lands, to this Republic when such virtues come to be 
worn only with a loose and disheveled decency), in 



48 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

all these respects, while it is true that each age and 
nation hath its peculiar character, how unequivocal 
is the testimony of history that the characters of all 
depend upon the infusion or rejection of the princi- 
ples of the gospel. 

I am not, however, a politician or a philosopher, 
but a preacher. It is not my design to speak of po- 
litical or ethical defects, but of wants far more pro- 
found and pressing — the wants of the soul, the ne- 
cessities of the immortal spirit, exigencies which no 
earthly scheme of polity, or philosophy, or religion, 
has ever even recognized, but which the gospel both 
reaches and abundantly satisfies. The entire system 
of the Bible, indeed, and every j3rovision of the gos- 
pel, has this great peculiarity; it addresses man as 
carrying within him the consciousness of wants over- 
looked by all teachers except Jesus Christ — wants 
which make him poor, and blind, and naked, and 
miserable, while he pretends to be rich and in- 
creased in goods. Christianity takes for granted a 
guilt and ruin such as no human expedient could 
meet. It is precisely on this account — it is because 
of its exact adaptation to all the dreadful emergen- 
cies of our conditions that the great salvation has 
triumphed and must triumph; that Jesus must reign 
till he hath put all enemies under his feet; that 
Christ lifted up will draw all men unto him; that all 
nations shall call him blessed, and that unto him 
shall the gathering of the people be. And if you do 
not already feel all the force of this truth, suffer me 
to explain it to you. 



The Desire of All Nations. 49' 

In the first place, then, wherever a human being 
is found, there will be found a conscience — a moral; 
sense; ignorant perhaps, perhaps stupefied, but still 
asserting, at least periodically, its mysterious power, 
and reverberating through all the chambers of the^ 
soul those thunders which awe and terrify the guilty. 
' 'This is the curse which goeth forth over the face of 
the whole earth," and secretly appalls the proudest, 
and flashes in upon the hardest, through all their 
steel and adamant, convictions that cleave, and agi- 
tate, and shake the soul with terror; nor from this 
pressure of unpardoned sin has man ever found, nor 
will man ever find deliverance but by the blood of 
Christ. Let men affect to despise the gospel, and 
seek to persecute its ministers and stifle its light; 
that gospel has in their bosoms a ministry they cannot 
resist, a radiance they cannot extinguish; and while 
their hands are reeking with persecution, the fell 
murderers of Christ, the ruthless, ferocious Saul, 
the cruel jailer, ask what they must do to be saved. 
Let men plunge into excesses, and seek in vice andl 
revelry to drown the inward forebodings, the fear- 
ful looking-for of judgment : "Though they dig into* 
hell," saith God, by his prophet, "thence shall my 
hand take them : though they bury themselves in 
the bottom of the sea, I will command the serpent 
to sting them there;" and Belshazzar, amid his de- 
lirious carousals, and Felix, triumphant in all his 
schemes of rapine and voluptuousness, find their 
faces gathering paleness and their frames shivering 
with terrors they cannot conceal. In a word, let. 

4 



50 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

men seek by mere repentance to atone for guilt : it 
is in vain. Everywhere the imploring cry is heard 
for some medium, some mediator between God and 
man. Wherever humanity is diffused there the 
deep, earnest, imploring exclamation is, "Where- 
with shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself 
before the high God; shall I come before him with 
burnt offerings, with calves of a year old; will the 
Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with 
ten thousands of rivers of oil ; shall I give my first- 
born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for 
the sin of my soul?-' and blood, blood flowing in 
every land, altars groaning with victims, heca- 
tombs smoking with gore, lacerating hooks and 
torturing pilgrimages, the reddened axles of Jug- 
gernaut, and the wail of anguished women on the 
Ganges, attest the inefficacy of repentance to give 
peace to the conscience. No, my brethren, the 
great want of a guilty world is the atonement of 
Calvary. It is the Lamb of God alone who taketh 
away the sin of the world. To him John, the great 
preacher and impersonation of repentance, pointed; 
in him there is a redundancy of merit for the vilest; 
from his cross there floats down a voice, saying, 
"Look unto me and be saved, all ye ends of the 
earth !" And in this view how truly is the Saviour 
4 'the Desire of all nations," bringing "peace to 
them that are nigh and to them that are afar off." 

Guilt. To the want produced by guilt add now 
that created by the corruption which sin hath shed 
through our nature, blinding the mind, perverting 



The Desire of All Nations. 51 

the will, and not only encasing the heart in obdu- 
racy, but filling it with enmity to God; a corruption 
so entire and universal and self-propagating that the 
Bible employs, in portraying it, the most frightful 
image, and pronounces all men not only without life, 
but dead — meaning by death not merely the ab- 
sence but the opposite of life; death as a principle, a 
power so active, so terrific in its destructive energy, 
that in a few hours it reduces to a mass of disgust- 
ing putrefaction all the vigor and beauty which the. 
more sluggish element of life had been for years 
maturing and perfecting. "All," say the Scrip- 
tures, "are dead, dead in trespasses and sins." 
Such is the natural condition of the whole world, 
and were men left to themselves this corruption, 
this virus, this leprous essence would forever work, 
and spread, and forever feed the deathless worm 
and the quenchless fire. And as most gloriously 
"the life of the world," as he who "has come that 
we may have life, and have it more abundantly" 
than by the first infusion; that the Spirit may 
quicken, and purify, and renovate, and pour into the 
imperishable fabric the elixir of immortal strength 
and vigor — in this view how truly is Jesus "the 
Desire of all nations." 

In fine, take but one thought more : the just anger 
of God — that wrath which hangs in unmitigated 
blackness over a guilty world, and from which there 
is no refuge but at the cross of Christ. The wrath 
of God is a calamity without a name — a calamity 
which none can comprehend- — which it will require 



52 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

eternity to comprehend and deplore; and even the 
possibility of incurring it must fill a reflecting mind, 
with unspeakable concern and alarm. In heaven it 
once burned a little, and, promptly as the peal fol- 
lows the flash, came the crisis upon the crime. 
Forthwith, without any waiting for a second offense, 
without hope or respite, angels were weeded out of 
their "first estate." Radiant cherubim and sera- 
phim, the choice and prime of all the celestial hier- 
archy, withered into devils, and sank all flaming into 
hell, flung from eternal splendors down to bottom- 
less perdition, where they now lie, "reserved in 
everlasting chains, under darkness, unto the judg- 
ment of the great day." And not only are all the 
children of Adam "children of wrath," but all hear 
the premonition, all hear that cry, "Flee from the 
wrath to come. " All know that the consciousness 
of guilt is the prophecy of vengeance, and until 
sheltered in Jesus all stand helpless and hopeless,, 
exposed to the lurid cloud which is only suspended 
for a while — only waits till it shall have been charged 
and burdened with storms, and fires, and every 
deadly material, when it will break and beat forever 
on their heads, and pour a deluge of eternal wrath 
upon their souls. And in this view is not Christ — 
that Jesus who "hath delivered us from the wrath 
to come" — O ! is he not "the Desire of ail nations?" 
It would be easy to multiply details on this arti- 
cle, but I must not. It were easy to show that, in 
reference to the most profound and pressing neces- 
sities of man, the gospel is the great desideratum — 



The Desire of All Nations. 53 

literally the one thing needful. The spirital wants 
of every age and clime and class declare how worthy 
of all acceptation is the faithful saying, and the 
assertion would not be at all extravagant should I 
use the image of the Apostle and say that where 
Christ is not known the earnest expectation of the 
•creature waiteth for his manifestation, and the whole 
•creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together for 
a deliverance he alone can bestow. Justice pursues, 
vengeance thunders, conscience shoots its clear and 
ghastly flashes, Satan sways his baleful sceptre, 
death "reigns over all,'' trampling the nations under 
the hoofs of that terrible pale horse, and after death 
"hell follows." Such is the state of man; nor is 
there any hope for him but in the Redeemer. Until 
that Sun of eternity arise a canopy of perdition and 
despair envelops him, "clouds and ever-during dark 
surround him;" he turns on every side 

"Eyes that roll in vain, 
To find the piercing - ray, and find no dawn." 

III. Our last article requires scarcely a word from 
me. Here I had proposed to consider the epithet 
"Desire" as synonymous with happiness, but it 
-cannot be necessary to prove that the happiness of 
all must be found in Christ. Not that all feel this, 
for men, alas ! ignorant on all subjects, are most 
ignorant as to what constitutes their true felicity, 
.and thus call that good which they love, and reject 
and hate the gospel which condemns their sins. Yet 
it is not less true that only Jesus can confer true 



54 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

happiness; he alone can say, "Come unto me all ye- 
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you 
rest." 

Happiness, because the mind of man can rejoice 
only in truth, and Christ is "the truth." Without 
him we grope darkling in mazes of error, and are 
perplexed and wretched amid doubts and specula- 
tions as to all it most concerns us to know. Hap- 
piness, because the heart of man can only be satisfied 
with objects worthy of it, and Christ alone proposes 
those objects — objects which fix the heart, but with- 
out which the passions wander in unrest and pining 
through creation, fretting themselves with things 
gross and sensual, whose possession only stings us 
into a consciousness of our immortality, and whose 
best gifts are only a pleasing degradation. Hap- 
piness, lastly, because God is the life of the soul, 
and Christ alone reveals this Being, and reinstates- 
us in his favor and love. To be without Christ, say 
the Scriptures, is to be without God, and to be with- 
out God is to be severed from the supreme good, to 
be cut off from the source of all joy, to have our 
souls cursed and blasted now, and dying thus, they 
must become forever most desolate and wretched— 
the orphans of the universe, the outcasts of eter- 
nity. But, as I said, a word here will suffice. 

The subject, my brethren, on which you have 
been addressed is one very dear to me, not only for 
its interest, but as the common joy and glory of all 
Christians. It is because the disciples of Jesus 
wander from the cross that they are separated, and 



The Desire of All Nations. 55 

walk over hidden fires forever flaming up in contro- 
versy. As they gather around this sacred altar, one 
heart glows in every breast, and all the elements of 
strife are melted and fused into one monopolizing 
love for God and for each other. 

And now, in applying this discourse, what shall I 
say ? Why, the very entrance of such a Being into 
this world, and the mission of which this earth was 
the theater, how astonishing and absorbing. There 
are times in the lives of all men when we feel that 
we are not all matter; when our thoughts wander far 
away from the finite and mutable, and become fa- 
miliar with eternity; when our souls are agitated 
with the mystery of that eternal Spirit by which 
they are encompassed — are athirst for God — and 
ascending to the perfect and ever-glorious, ex- 
claim, in the language of Philip, "Show us the 
Father, and it sufficeth us.* ? 

My brethren, that God, that eternal Spirit has 
rent the veil and shown himself in our midst. The 
Word which "in the beginning was with God, and 
was God, was made flesh and dwelt among us.*' 
''Christ Jesus has come into the world.- 7 And, now, 
what movement should stir our minds '. In Christ, 
"God was manifest in the flesh." He is "the image 
of the invisible God," "the brightness of the Fa- 
ther's glory and express image of his person." "He 
that hath seen me hath seen the Father." In his 
temper the character of the Deity was imperson- 
ated; in his life the attributes of the Deity were em- 
bodied; in his cross the very heart of the Deity is 



56 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

disclosed to our love. What a Being ! Search 
creation through, explore the universe, scale all 
heights, fathom all depths — no such object can be 
found for the admiring, adoring contemplations of 
the mind, the imagination, the heart. 

Having gazed upon this wonderful Being, think 
next of the enterprise on which he came and the 
cost at which that enterprise was achieved. The 
-enterprise, think of that — it was the salvation of 
man. The devils saw him and exclaimed, " What 
have we to do with thee?" As if they had said, 
"Thou hast not come to save us." No, they had 
nothing to do with him; but we have everything to 
do with him, since he came for us men and our sal- 
vation. O, when the Invisible steps forth upon this 
scene of visible things, on such a mission and in 
such a form, must not our hearts yield, melt, love, 
worship, adore ? 

The enterprise — and then the cost. From ever- 
lasting there he sat, the princely majesty of the 
universe, amid admiring, adoring thrones, and prin- 
cipalities, and powers, who drank in love and bless- 
edness from his smiling countenance, and forever 
caused the golden atmosphere to re-echo his praises. 
But he left all. 

He abdicated all * k the throne and equipage of 
'God's almightiness." There was something sweeter 
to his heart than all the harmonies and ecstasies of 
heaven. It was mercy — it was pity for our wretch- 
edness — and he came, he flew, he stooped and took 
our nature in its meanest and most mournful condi- 



The Desire of All Nations. 57 

tions. And, in this nature, what sufferings did he 
not endure — sufferings which destroyed his life, 
though they could not destroy his love. Think of 
these, and how are you affected? "Christ.** says 
Peter, "hath once suffered for sins, the just for the 
unjust;*' but in that once what sufferings were not 
concentrated. Ah, miserable sinner, from eternity 
had the only-begotten reposed in the bosom of the 
Father, and now see him leaving that bosom and 
taking the form of a servant for you. From eternity 
had the fairest among ten thousand, and the one 
altogether lovely, been rich in the glories and 
hosannas of the skies, and now see him becoming 
poor for you — so poor that, living, he had not where 
to lay his head; and dying, he would have been 
buried, but for charity, like a common malefactor, 
by the highway side. Follow the adorable Jesus 
from scene to scene of ever-deepening insult and 
sorrow, tracked everywhere by spies hunting for the 
precious blood. Behold his sacred face swollen 
with tears and stripes. And, last of all, ascend 
Mount Calvary and view there the amazing specta- 
cle; earth and hell gloating on the gashed form of 
the Lord of Glory; men and devils glutting their 
malice in the agony of the Prince of Life; and all 
the scattered rays of vengeance which would have 
consumed our guilty race, converging and beating in 
focal intensity upon him of whom the Eternal twice 
exclaimed, in a voice from heaven, "This is my be- 
loved Son, in whom I am well pleased.'* After 
this what are our emotions ? Can we ever be cold 



58 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

or faithless ? No, my brethren, it is impossible,, 
unless we forget this Saviour and lose sight of that 
cross on which he poured out his soul for us. 

That is an affecting passage in Roman history 
which records the death of Manlius. At night, and 
on the Capitol, fighting hand to hand, had he re- 
pelled the Gauls and saved the city when all seemed 
lost. Afterward he was accused, but the Capitol 
towered in sight of the Forum, where he was tried, 
and, as he was about to be condemned, he stretched 
out his hands and pointed, weeping, to that arena 
of his triumph. At this the people burst into tears, 
and the judges could not pronounce sentence. Again 
the trial proceeded, but was again defeated; nor 
could he be convicted until they had removed him: 
to a low spot, from which the Capitol was invisible. 
And behold, my brethren, what I am saying. While 
the cross is in view vainly will earth and sin seek to 
shake the Christian's loyalty and devotion — one 
look at that purple monument of a love which alone, 
and when all was dark and lost, interposed for our 
rescue — and their efforts will be baffled. Low must 
we sink, and blotted from our hearts must be the 
memory of that deed before we can become faithless 
to the Redeemer's cause and perfidious to his glory. 

But this thought has carried me beyond all 
bounds. I return and with a single reflection more 
I finish. That reflection regards our duties and 
the solemn responsibilities which the subject charges 
home upon us all. 

My impenitent hearer, how loudly does the text 



The Desire of All Nations. 59 

speak to you; and I cannot sit down without asking 
you, ''What think you of Christ ? How are you treat- 
ing him who came and who seeks to save you % You 
have heard that he is the desire of all nations; tell 
me, is he your desire or aversion ? Will you re- 
ceive and obey him or are you resolved still to say, 
"Not this man, but Barabbas ?" Recollect, with- 
out him you can have no peace now — your deepest, 
strongest wants must be unsatisfied — the whole cre- 
ation cannot make you happy. Recollect, you will 
soon have nothing to do but to die; then "the desire 
of the wicked shall perish," and what will become 
of you? Soon the Saviour will come again, and 
very differently. "Behold he cometh with clouds, 
and every eye shall see him, and they also which 
pierced him, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail 
because of him." And then, when you call upon 
mountains to cover you, and abysses to shelter you, 
how will your present conduct appear? And what 
a wail will be yours when, shattering the air, and 
shattering your soul, that sentence shall be pro- 
nounced, "Depart, accursed, into everlasting fire, 
prepared for the devil and his angels !" 

It is, however, to us Christians that the applica- 
tion of the text especially belongs at this time, and 
in our bosoms how many thoughts ought it to 
awaken. True (O blessed be God for this,) Jesus 
Christ is all our desire and all our salvation. We 
know him as such, and our souls do magnify the 
Lord. But, with the possession of this blessing, 
w T hat responsibilities devolve upon us ! 



60 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

My very dear brethren, is Christ the Desire of all 
nations f Then why are there so many nations still ig- 
norant of Christ ? The angel declared that the tidings 
should be to all people — why, then, have so many 
not heard those tidings \ The Saviour's command 
is, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel 
to every creature'' — why, then, have not the heralds 
of the gospel traversed the earth ? The answer to 
these questions I blush to give; it is (shame on our 
covetousness — the reproach of our country and of 
our churches) that Christians have not done, and will 
not do, their duty. 

Ah, my brethren, my brethren, just now, as I 
surveyed the cross, I pronounced it almost impossi- 
ble for us to be faithless to Christ; but alas ! when I 
turn from the cross to the conduct of Christians, I 
have most painfully to confess my mistake. Where 
is the spirit of Christ among us ? Upon whom has 
his mantle fallen, all wetted with tears for the per- 
ishing ? "When he saw the multitudes he was 
moved with compassion on them, because they 
fainted and were scattered abroad, as sheep having 
no shepherd;" how few are affected with such a 
sight now. "Five hundred millions of souls," ex- 
claimed a missionary, "are represented as being 
unenlightened. I cannot, if I would, give up the 
idea of being a missionary while I reflect upon this 
vast number of my fellow-sinners who are perishing 
for lack of knowledge. Five hundred millions ! in- 
trudes itself upon my mind wherever 1 go and how- 
ever 1 am employed. When I go to bed it is the 



The Desire of All Nations. 61 

last thing that occurs to my memory; if I awake in 
the night it is to meditate on it alone, and in the 
morning it is generally the first thing that occupies 
my thoughts." Nor is it only the heathen at a dis- 
tance; among ourselves how many thousands of the 
sons of Ethiopia are stretching out their hands, and 
how have they been neglected. My brethren, let 
us awake to our responsibility ere the wrath of God 
wake us up to sleep no more, and the cry which 
goeth up into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth at- 
tract his righteous indignation. 

Is Christ the Desire of all nations ? Then, my 
brethren, let us preach Christ, and let our mission- 
aries preach Christ. We do not want philosophers, 
nor metaphysicians, nor even theologians, but 
preachers of Christ and him crucified. Nor let 
us fear that God will not open a great and effectual 
door for us if we are willing to be co-workers with 
him. What am I saying ? How wide a door is 
already open; and if, instead of indolently crying, 
"There are yet four months and then cometh har- 
vest," we would only "lift up our eyes and look on 
the fields," upon every side we would see them 
"white and ready to harvest." 

Lastly, is Christ the Desire of all nations ? Then 
how sure is our success. True, we must expect 
difficulties, and it is not improbable that, before the 
gospel conquers the earth, there will be many con- 
flicts and convulsions. But when we consider what 
God has promised and done, how intent and busy is 
the whole Trinity in the grand scheme of salvation, 



62 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

what difficulty can move us ? Who can doubt that 
all events shall conspire to secure Immanuel's tri- 
umph, and even the passions of the world become 
ministers in its conversion to God ? Many of us 
deprecated and deplored the disruption which lately 
divided our churches, but the man has blind eyes 
who sees not already the hand of God in this; and 
he, among us, has a cold heart who has not felt a 
glow at the noble conduct of our brethren at the 
North and is not fired with holy emulation. And 
thus shall it ever be; the truth shall yet bind kings 
in chains and nobles in fetters of iron; the wheels 
of the Redeemer's chariot move not back, but shall 
roll on until "the Desire" shall become the Delight 
of all nations, and shall reign over them in right- 
eousness. All the resources of the universe are in 
the hands of the ascended Jesus. To him the 
Father hath said, "Thy throne, O God, is forever and 
ever;'' and the hour hastens on when the whole 
earth shall become a temple, and that temple be 
filled with the glory of the Lord and echo with the 
hallelujahs of 

"An assembly such as earth 
Saw never, such as heaven stoops down to see." 

Welcome the glorious consummation ! O months, 
and seasons, and years speed your tardy flight and 
usher in the blissful period; that day when, from 
every hill and valley, shall ascend clouds of incense, 
to return in sparkling showers of mercy; when from 
every human heart shall swell the angelic hymn, 



The Desire of All Nations. 63 

* 'Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace and 
good will to men;" when the pealing chorus of a 
renovated world shall answer back the thundering 
acclamations of the skies, and every creature which 
is in heaven and on the earth, and such as are in the 
sea, and all that are in them shall say, Alleluia ! 
the Lord God omniponent reigneth; Worthy is the 
Lamb that was slain; Blessing and honor and glory 
and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, 
and unto the Lamb forever and ever. Amen ! 



CHAPTEK III. 
ELD. WM. VAUGHAN. 

William Yaughan was born February 22, 1785 r 
in Westmoreland county, Pa. He was of Welch 
extraction. His father moved to Kentucky and 
settled in Scott county when William was only three 
years old. 

He had in his almost wilderness home but very 
few educational advantages, and what he learned 
was due to his native ability more than any outside 
encouragement. He, however, became a proficient 
scholar before he reached middle life, and used his 
acquirements to good advantage in his long minis- 
terial career. 

He displayed his inclination to preach when a 
small boy, age eight years. The sermon he preached 
was to a number of his playmates and was as fol- 
lows : "Boys, if you break the Sabbath, or tell. 
stories, or swear, or don't mind your mammy and 
daddy, or don't mind your books and be good boys, 
you will die and go to hell — a lake of blue blazes, 
burning with fire and brimstone. And when you 
ask for water the devil will melt lead in a ladle and 
pour it down your throat." Of course he was not 
converted to Christ at that time, but it was an indi- 
cation of the predisposition of the child, and his de- 
veloping into a great preacher is not to be wondered 

(64) 




WILLIAM VAUGHAN, D.D. 



Eld. Wm. Vaughan. 65 

at. For this sermon, however, the brutal teacher 
gave him a whipping, and the whipping was so se- 
vere that he carried the marks twelve months. Let 
us thank God that we have a more humane class of 
school teachers in this generation. 

In early life Mr. Yaughan learned the trade of 
tailor, and for several years he made an honest liv- 
ing with his needle. During this time, by reading 
Paine's "Age of Reason " he became skeptical — 
almost an infidel. For a time he belonged to an in- 
fidel club, yet he said, on one occasion, to Elder 
J. H. Spencer, "I never expected to die in that 
faith." 

The influence of literature cannot be estimated. 
How many have been led to ruin by reading bad 
books ! Let Christian people be diligent in circu- 
lating good books, and, as far as possible, counter- 
act the pernicious influence of the trainloads of 
cheap and ruinous stuff now being scattered among 
the people. 

Upon visiting a ricli friend who was wicked, pro- 
fane and skeptical, and who was on his deathbed, 
Mr. Yaughan was made to reflect seriously upon his 
own lost and ruined condition. He there and then 
resolved to seek the salvation of his soul, but he felt 
like he would be disgraced if he should make a pro- 
fession of religion — all of his infidel friends would 
deride him and turn against him. In this condition 
he resolved to become a Christian and live a right- 
eous life and prepare for Heaven and not let any one 
know it. Of course, upon reading the Bible, he 

6 



66 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

found this was folly. His trouble deepened, and 
the fact of his wickedness became oppressive. He 
said to himself, "How wicked I have been to sin 
against so good a God." 

While in this state of mind he attended a little log 
meeting-house where a preacher by the name of 
Leathers preached, and after he preached he was 
followed by Eld. Geo. Eve, preaching from the text, 
"Ye must be born again," and after he sat down 
Eld. James Quisenberry concluded the services by 
preaching from the text, ' 'The great day of his wrath 
is come and who shall be able to stand % " 

This was truly a primitive meeting — three long 
sermons at one sitting — but it mightily aroused Wm. 
Vaughan, who was soon converted and made a pub- 
lic profession of his faith in Christ. Let us hear 
him tell how he accepted Christ : "It seemed to me 
that I cried every breath : 'Lord be merciful to me. ' 
This continued a half hour. Suddenly the thought 
occurred : 'What a great change has come over me. 
Six weeks ago I could not utter a sentence without 
an oath ; now every breath is a prayer for mercy. ' 
Then this text occurred to me : 'Ye have received 
the spirit of adoption whereby ye cry Abba, Father. ' 
In a moment it seemed to me that the blood of 
Christ overwhelmed me, and I felt that my burden 
and distress were gone. I felt such a love for Jesus 
Christ that 1 thought if he was on earth and I could 
get hold of his feet I would press them to my bosom. " 

Such was the conversion of Wm. Vaughan. When 
God raises up a man to stay the onward march of 



Eld. Wm. Vaughan. 67 

heresy he gives that man unmistakable evidence of 
his acceptance with God. A powerful conversion 
was meet for Wm. Yaughan since he was the chosen 
one to frustrate the pernicious work of Campbellism. 
He had a clear insight into the doctrines of Grace 
by experience, and his earnest and persistent study 
of the Holy Scriptures confirmed that rich experi- 
ence. 

He was licensed to preach February, 1811, by 
Friendship Church, Ky. He made some dismal 
failures at the beginning, but he increased in power 
as he continued to try, and no other man in Ken- 
tucky ever became so great a preacher as he. Tes- 
timonies from various sources could be quoted, but 
suffice it to say that all accord to Wm. Yaughan the 
first place as a great preacher of all who lived dur- 
ing the first half of the nineteenth century. Others 
have risen up who have perhaps been as great, but 
none equaled him in his day. 

He was at various times pastor of a number o£ 
country and village churches, and traveled exten- 
sively as missionary and evangelist, and thousands 
were converted and baptized under his ministry. He 
labored untiringly, and braved the cold and the heat, 
and went under all circumstances k 'everywhere 
preaching the word." 

The greatest work of his life, however, was his 
fight with Campbellism. He met the leaders of the 
Campbellite movement in debate and always admin- 
istered a crushing defeat to his opponent. Besides 
this he confirmed the churches and the ministry. 



68 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

Had it not been for his powerful preaching whole 
churches and associations, that are now among the 
strongest in Kentucky, would have gone with Alex- 
ander Campbell. Such men as Wm. Warder and 
Jeremiah Yardeman, and several other lesser lights, 
were saved from the errors of Campbell by his influ- 
ence. 

The Baptists will never know until eternity re- 
veals the facts how much they owe to Wm. Vaughan. 
Among the mighty defenders of the faith stands as a 
pillar of strength this remarkable man. He gave 
a son to the ministry who made a strong, useful 
preacher. He gave solidity to Kentucky Baptists, and 
they have ever since been noted for their orthodoxy. 

His greatest debate was with Alexander Campbell. 
In this debate "he dissected Mr. Campbell's system 
with a masterly hand, drew the line between it and 
the doctrine of the Baptists, and made open war on 
the new theory." (Spencer's History Ky. Baptists, 
page 226.) 

In 1868 Elder Yaughan fell and crushed his hip. 
Being in his eighty-fourth year he was permanently 
disabled, but he had preached constantly up to that 
time. His remarkable activity at that great age, 
and his powerful preaching for the twenty-five years 
preceding, proves that the fad of "laying on the 
shelf" all preachers at the age of sixty is superlative 
nonsense. A preacher is really not at his best until 
he reaches fifty, and for twenty years after that he 
should do, and generally does, his best work. After 
the age of seventy we may look for a decline, but many 



Eld. Wm. Vaughan. 69 

remain effective and strong to eighty or ninety years 
of age. For instance, there is the subject of this 
sketch and Dr. A. D. Sears, who in his ninety-sixth 
year preached every Sunday acceptably for the 
church in Clarksville, Tenn. ; and there is S. H. Ford, 
who at the age of eighty-one preaches with great 
power. J. JVI. Pendleton did the best year's work 
of his life, judging from the results, when he was 
seventy-one years old. It was his last year at Up- 
land, Penn. The author calls attention to this be- 
cause of the pernicious idea that our old men should 
step aside just when they are strongest mentally and 
spiritually and give place to young men with but 
little to commend them besides their energy. The 
author is himself a young man, just thirty-one years 
old, but he hereby enters a protest against the mis- 
chievous practice of pushing out of the ministry our 
strongest and most experienced preachers. 

During the last years of his life he lived with his 
son, Eld. T. M. Yaughan. He was a student to the 
last, and occasionally preached a sermon while he 
sat in his easy arm-chair, being unable to stand. On 
February 25, 1877, at the advanced age of ninety- 
three years, he preached his last sermon in the 
church house at Danville, Ky. On the 31st day of 
March, a few days over a month thereafter, he fell 
asleep in Jesus, and was laid to rest in the Bloom- 
field (Ky.) cemetery, near the pulpit where he had 
preached for over thirty years. 

"Know ye not that there is a prince and a great 
man fallen this day in Israel ?" — II. Sam. 3:38. 



THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 

BY ELD. WILLIAM VAUGHAN, BLOOMFIELD, KT. 

Man, as a depraved creature, has no realizing 
--sense of his dependence upon God, or the claims of 
his Maker upon him. He lives to himself and loses 
sight of his accountabilitv to the author of his being. 
He passes on to the judgment seat of Christ ignorant 
-of his relation to God, never investigating the nature, 
spirituality or extent of the law which he is under, 
or, what is still worse, and possible, calling in ques- 
tion its very existence. 

1 proceed, in the first place, to show that man is 
naturally and necessarily under the law to God. 
This results from the character and perfections of the 
Divine nature, and from the immutable relation that 
exists between God and man. The one is the Crea- 
tor, the other his creature. From God, man has re- 
ceived his existence. All his intellectual and moral 
powers are a gratuitous bestowment from the Al- 
mighty; and consequently he is placed in a state of 
dependence upon God, and subjection to his will. 
And as man was created an intelligent being, en- 
dowed with liberty of action as a free moral agent, 
and capable of moral government, this proves that 
he is under law to his Creator. He was created ca- 
pable of knowing, loving and obeying God, and it is 
fit and proper that he should do so; indeed, I con- 

(70) 



The Law and the Gospet. 71 

aider it impossible, in the very nature and fitness of 
things, for an intelligent being to exist without being 
under law to God. This is what theological writers 
call the law of nature and the moral law. The angels 
in heaven are under such a law. This is evident 
from the fact that a part of them sinned, and are 
now suffering the punishment merited on account of 
sin, "for sin is the transgression of law; but where 
there is no law there is no transgression. " Man, in 
Paradise, was under such a law; and its principal 
articles are, to some extent, enstamped upon the 
hearts of all men. "For the Gentiles, who have not 
the written law, are a law unto themselves, which 
show the works of the law written in their hearts. " 
Why is it that even among the heathen there is a 
catalogue of sins universally forbidden, and of vir- 
tues everywhere acknowledged as binding upon man- 
kind ? We answer, because man is placed, by his 
Maker, under a moral constitution which forbids the 
commission of crime, and requires the practice of 
every holy duty. 

It is also evident that man was under law to God 
prior to the giving of the law to Israel on Mount 
Sinai; for death, the penalty of the law, reigned 
with uncontrolled dominion "from Adam to Moses 
over those who had not sinned, after the similitude 
of Adam's transgression." Paul represents the 
Galatians, who were Gentiles, as being under the 
curse of the law before the gospel was revealed to 
them; they were kept under the law, "shut up to the 
faith, which should afterward be revealed." "Now 



72 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

we know that what thing soever the law saith, it 
saith to them who are under the law, that every 
mouth may be stopped and all the world may be- 
come guilty before God." Conscience, the inward 
monitor, admonishes all men of their accountability 
to God. Why is it that the impenitent sinner 
dreads to appear before his Maker ? Just because 
he is conscious of ■ guilt, contracted by the violation 
of the law he is under, and of punishment, deserved 
in proportion to the degree of guilt he is the sub- 
ject of. 

In the second place, we proceed to notice the 
goodness of the moral law, as a correct idea of the- 
purity of the law unfolds to the mind the exceeding 
sinfulness of sin, and the need of the atonement of 
Christ to magnify the law and expiate the guilt of 
transgressors. 

The purity of the law must be admitted by all, 
who acknowledge God to be the author of it, as holi- 
ness is essential to his nature, and constitutes his 
glory and loveliness. Pure streams flow from un- 
tainted fountains. It expresses the sentiments of 
his heart in reference to all moral beings; it secures 
to the Creator the claims of his government, and 
binds all holy intelligences to his throne, and is the 
very transcript of his nature. It enjoins all that is 
due from man to his Maker, and all that is due from 
one moral being to another. It prescribes all that 
is morally good, and forbids all that is morally evil. 
Men, as lawgivers, require their subjects to live vir- 
tuously; not because they are themselves the lovers 



The Law and the Gospel. 73 

of virtue, but merely because virtue promotes the 
well-being of the social compact. But the law of 
(rod prescribes virtue or holiness because of its in- 
trinsic excellence, and condemns vice on account of 
its intrinsic evil. 

Human laws take notice only of the outward acts 
of men, but the divine law sits in judgment upon 
every volition of the mind; upon the thoughts, de- 
sires and affections of the heart. And no act is 
pure in the eye of God unless it proceeds from a 
principle of love to the great Lawgiver. "The com- 
mandment," says David, "is exceedingly broad." 
Paul declares "that the law is spiritual, and the 
commandment is holy, just and good." It is a law 
never to be abrogated, set aside. Were it unholy it 
never would have been given or perpetuated. Its 
purity is manifest from the awful sanction annexed 
to prevent man from transgressing it, and the judg- 
ments inflicted on men on account of their rebellion. 
The curse of God fell upon the earth for the sin of 
man. He was driven from Paradise and a cheru- 
bim and flaming sword stationed to guard the tree 
of life; the old world drowned, the cities of the plain 
burned with Are. Now, all these inflictions of 
divine wrath proclaim the holiness of the law of 
God. Some apology may be offered for the viola- 
tion of an oppressive law, but none whatever for the 
transgression of a law that is holy, just and good. 

Once more we remark that the strongest evidence 
of the holiness of the law is seen in the cross of 
Christ. For it would have been inconsistent with the 



74 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

character and perfections of God to have placed 
man under an unholy law, oppressive in its nature 
and not adapted to his capacity as the subject of his 
moral government, and then give his own Son to die 
the painful death of the cross to magnify it. Thus 
we see that, in the judgment of God, the law was 
worthy of being honored by the active and passive 
obedience of Christ; and there is no glory in the 
gospel but upon the supposition that the law is 
glorious. 

And it is worthy of notice that almost every error 
imbibed by men in reference to the plan of salva- 
tion results from wrong views of the nature and ex- 
cellency of the moral law. We have said that God 
is the giver of the law. The following occurrence 
we mention to prove the truth of this declaration : 

Some years since there lived in one of the North- 
ern States an infidel lawyer, of strong and culti- 
vated mind, who felt a desire to examine the claims 
of the Bible to inspiration by the Almighty. After 
reading the twentieth chapter of Exodus, he said to 
a pious friend, "I have been reading the moral law. " 
"Well, what do you think of it?" asked his friend. 
"I will tell you what I used to think," answered the 
infidel; "I supposed that Moses was the leader of a 
band of banditti, and that, having a strong mind, 
he acquired great influence over a superstitious peo- 
ple, and that on Mount Sinai he played off some 
sort of fireworks, to the amazement of his ignorant 
followers, who imagined, in their mingled fear and 
superstition, that the exhibition was supernatural." 



The Law and the Gospel. 75 

"But what do you think now f" inquired his friend. 
"I have been looking," said the infidel, "into the 
nature of that law. I have been trying to see 
whether I can add anything to it, or take anything 
from it, so as to make it better. Sir, I cannot. It 
is perfect. The first commandment," continued he, 
"directs us to make the Creator the object of our 
supreme love. That is right; if he be our creator, 
preserver and supreme benefactor we ought to treat 
him, and none other, as such. The second forbids 
idolatry. That certainly is right. The third for- 
bids profaneness. The fourth fixes a time for reli- 
gious worship. If there is a God he ought surely 
to be worshiped. The fifth defines the peculiar 
duties arising from the family relations. Injuries 
to our neighbors are then classified by the moral law. 
They are divided into offenses against life, chastity, 
property and character. And," said he, applying 
a legal idea with great acuteness, "I notice that the 
greatest offense in each class is especially forbidden. 
Thus, the greatest injury to life is murder; to chas- 
tity, adultery; to property, theft; to character, per- 
jury. Now, the greater offense must include the 
less of the same kind. Murder must include every 
injury to life; adultery, every injury to purity; and 
so of the rest. And the moral code is closed and 
perfected by a command forbidding every improper 
desire in regard to our neighbors. I have been 
thinking, where did Moses get that law f I have 
read history. The Egyptians, and the adjacent na- 
tions, were idolaters; so were the Greeks and Ro- 



76 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

mans; and the wisest and best Greeks or Romans 
never gave a code of morals like this. Where did 
Moses get this law, which surpasses the wisdom and 
philosophy of the most enlightened ages? He lived 
at a period comparatively barbarous; but he has 
given a law in which the learning and sagacity of 
all subsequent time can detect no flaw. Where did 
he get this law f He could not have soared so far 
above his age as to have devised it himself. I am 
satisfied where he obtained it. It must have come 
from heaven. I am convinced of the truth of the 
religion. " 

The infidel was infidel no longer, but remained, to 
his death, a firm believer in the truth of Christianity. 

The great Lawgiver is doubtless disposed to pre- 
vent transgression, and to secure the obedience of 
his creatures, and to impress upon their minds a 
sense of the holiness of his law. This is evident 
from the awful but righteous penalty annexed to it. 
Its language is, "The soul that sinneth shall die," 
and like law in general, it cannot tolerate the trans- 
gression of itself. Such an idea is a burlesque upon 
every principle of legislation, human or divine. 
And all who expect to obtain salvation by works 
imbibe the idea that the law is relaxed in its strict- 
ness, and that God has adapted it to the condition 
of man in his present lapsed estate. Hence it is 
often said that if God were to punish his erring 
creatures for every sin committed, he would be un- 
just and tyrannical in the extreme. Now, if this be 
so, God has given to man a law by which he cannot 



The Law and the Gospel. 77 

abide without incurring the charge of injustice and 
cruelty. But the language of Scripture is, "Cursed 
is every one that continueth not in all things which 
are written in the book of the law to do them." 
And can it be supposed that the law, which requires 
us to love God with all our heart, and our neighbor 
as ourself, has ceased to be holy, just and good be- 
cause of man's indisposition to obey it? And we 
know that the want of a disposition to obey the law 
cannot set aside its claims upon us. 

Again — what does the best obedience of a sinner, 
out of Christ, amount to ? It proceeds from a heart 
totally depraved; and the heart is the source of 
moral action; and if the fountain be impure, so are 
the works flowing from it. ' ' The ploughing of the 
wicked," says the wise man, "is sin." And assur- 
edly impure acts must be the poorest materials im- 
aginable out of which to produce a righteousness 
commensurate with the demands of God's pure and 
holy law. 

But further. Can the advocates of a mitigated 
law tell us how far it is relaxed ? And if not, all is 
thrown loose, and involved in uncertainty, and no 
infallible rule is given by which the conduct of man 
is regulated or governed. Surely, such a sentiment 
is a reflection upon the omniscient and immutable 
wisdom of the divine Lawgiver. It is saying that 
God originally gave to man a law, which he learned 
by experience was not suited to his nature as the 
subject of law; and, therefore, he lowered it down, 
to suit his moral taste as a sinner, that he might ren- 



78 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

der such an amount of obedience to it as would atone 
for his sins and thus obtain salvation. What a re- 
proach to the Holy One of Israel does such an idea 
convey. 

The impossibility of salvation by works will fur- 
ther appear if we reflect upon the impossibility of 
human merit. Had man, in his state of innocence, 
obeyed the law perfectly, he would only have done 
his duty and been an "unprofitable servant." Ac- 
cording to this teaching of the Saviour, obedience 
to God is a debt. And who ever dreamed of re- 
warding a debtor for discharging his just debts ? 
No one. 

Again. Suppose a sinner were invested with 
power to obey the law perfectly, and were to do so 
even after committing his first sin — even that would 
avail him nothing as an atonement for the sin com- 
mitted, simply because his present and future obe- 
dience could not have a retrospective effect so as to 
atone for the sin committed prior to the exercise of 
holy obedience. The fact is, that present obedience 
can no more atone for past sins than it can for sins 
committed in the future. The claims of the law 
are, at all times, obligatory, and we cannot render 
more obedience than will release us from present 
obligation. Present duties cannot annihilate the 
past. And is not this in exact accordance with the 
teachings of the Bible? "Therefore, by the deeds 
of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his 
sight." "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse 
of the law, being made a curse for us." 



The Laic and the Gospel. 79 

Again. The experience of every renewed sinner 
accords with these statements. In his most serious 
moments his heart assures him that his works are 
tainted with sin; that he has no claim upon God 
whatever; and that salvation is by grace, pure and 
unmerited. 

I proceed to another idea, advanced by many, by 
which they suppose that they are not shut up to the 
faith or at all dependent upon Christ for exemption 
from the consequences of transgression. The per- 
sons to whom I allude attach great importance to re- 
pentance; so much so that, in their judgment, it 
secures to the sinner the pardon of his sins. Now, 
we feel certain that, without the interposition of 
Christ, repentance is an utter impossibility, inas- 
much as the natural tendency of sin is to harden the 
heart and deaden all the moral feelings of the soul. 
And the longer man continues under the influence, 
the farther he wanders from God, the more insensi- 
ble is he of his condition. And without the influ- 
ence of divine grace to counteract the effects of sin, 
he will become daily and hourly more and more 
hardened in sin, and less disposed to turn from his 
evil course, to repent of his wickedness, and to seek 
the favor of God. And were God, from this hour, 
to determine to withhold all divine influence from 
the hearts of men by fastening guilt upon the con- 
science, there never would be, on God's footstool, 
another broken-hearted sinner. And be it remem- 
bered that man, by his rebellion, shut up every 
avenue through which the grace of God could, con- 



80 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

sistently with the requirements of law and justice, 
be bestowed upon our fallen race. But Christ has, 
by his mediatorial office and work, opened up a new 
and living way through the rent veil of his flesh. 
We have now access, through him, to the Father, 
who is the giver of every good and perfect gift. 
"Him hath God exalted with his right hand, to be 
a Prince and a Saviour; to give repentance to Israel 
and forgiveness of sins." 

But suppose men were morally capable of exer- 
cising unfeigned repentance, uninfluenced by the 
grace of the Redeemer, would that render them ca- 
pable of pardon ? Before maintaining a principle 
of this sort the individual should know if there are 
not reasons for making the punishment of sin nec- 
essary in the government of God; and then he 
should know the effect the dispensing of these rea- 
sons would have on the different intelligent beings 
governed by the Almighty. But the divine govern- 
ment is such a mysterious and complicated affair, 
and so far beyond the grasp of the human mind, 
that no man living can answer such a question. 
Besides, we well know that when a man violates the 
laws of his country, and subjects himself to the pen- 
alty thereof, and repents of his transgression, he is 
not released from the punishment incurred, nor is 
the chief magistrate of the State justifiable in par- 
doning the penitent convict. The punishment of 
the guilty is necessary as a terror to evil-doers, and 
to deter others from the commission of similar of- 
fenses. Even in this life penitence does not re- 



The Law and the Gosjiel 81 

move the guilt of a vicious course. If a man, by 
vice, ruins his health, character or fortune, he does 
not find, upon repentance, that he is placed in the 
condition he occupied prior to his violating the laws 
of God and man. How, then, can any one prove 
that repentance removes the awful consequences 
which God has annexed to sin in the life to come ? 
In the judgment of those who thus reason it is more 
important to maintain inviolate the claims of the 
human governments than the claims of the divine 
government. Here, again, we see that the sinner 
is "shut up to the faith/' and that there is no way 
of escaping the penalty of transgression but by the 
cross of Christ. It is worthy of notice that, after 
a sinner is soundly converted to God, and repents of 
his sins, and believes in Christ, he still deserves,, 
when compared with the law, the wrath of God as 
much as he ever did. His present righteousness 
does not, in the least degree, atone for his former 
wickedness. In a word, there is no hope whatever 
for the salvation of the most devoutly penitent man 
that lives but through the grace of our Lord Jesus 
Christ. No Christian lives to God until he is dead 
to the law. Says Paul, "I, through the law, am 
dead to the law, that I might live unto God." 

Go, ye that vest upon the law 
And toil, and seek salvation there ; 

Look to the names that Moses saw, 
And shrink, and tremble, and despair. 

I'll retire beneath the cross ; 

Jesus, at thy dear feet I lie, 
And the keen sword, that Justice draws, 

Flaming - and red, shall pass me by. 



CHAPTER IV. 
ELD. A. P. WILLIAMS, D.D. 

A. P. Williams was born in St. Louis county, 
Ho., March 13, 1813. He was a son of Lewis 
Williams, who was a preacher of great power. He 
also had three brothers who were preachers of 
ability, viz : Perry I). Williams, I. T. Williams 
and M. F. Williams. His nephew, Eld. J. D. 
Murphy, D. D., is also a preacher of decided abil- 
ity, and has through a long ministry met with good 
success. 

Eld. A. P. Williams was a self-made scholar. 
He was proficient in Greek and Hebrew, as well as 
an excellent scholar in his mother tongue. He was 
a master of the English language, as those who 
have heard him preach and those who have read his 
books will testify. 

As a theologian he was without a superior in his 
day. He was looked upon by those who knew him 
best as a second Andrew Fuller. He could repeat 
^whole chapters of the Bible from memory, and if 
the Bible had been utterly destroyed, it is said that 
he could have reproduced nearly all of it, exactly as 
it is written, while he could have reproduced the 
substance of all of it. 

As a result of his wonderful knowledge of the 
Scriptures his preaching was pre-eminently scriptur- 

(82) 




A. P. WILLIAMS, D.D. 



Eld. A. P. Williams, B.J). 83 

al. He literally "preached the Word" — he "was 
mighty in the Scriptures." He knew philosophy, 
and he knew full well that philosophy is not able to 
save, and he, therefore, "preached the preaching 
that the Lord bid him to preach." O that his 
mantle might fall on ten thousand of the rising 
ministry. 

Dr. Williams gave his whole time to study, 
preaching, writing and pastoral duties. There were 
near four thousand conversions and baptisms under 
his preaching. He never took a rest, but rode on 
horseback, or walked, with an occasional steamboat 
ride, from place to place, and preached day and 
night for months at a time. As a preacher he was 
eminent. His eloquence, pathos and earnestness 
would set all his sermons on fire and move and 
melt the people. To this may be added a wonder- 
ful gift of exhortation, power of appeal, and a cer- 
tain winsomeness of manner which is now seldom 
•seen. 

He was pastor at Lexington, Richmond, St. Jo- 
seph, Miami, Bethel, Rehoboth, Good Hope and 
Glasgow churches, all in Missouri. These churches 
prospered under his ministry, and there are many 
still living who bear loving testimony to his worth 
as a preacher and pastor. 

The title of Doctor of Divinity was conferred on 
him twice, once by Georgetown College and after- 
ward by Bethel College, of Kentucky. 

He died in Glasgow, Mo., Nov. 9, 1868, while 
yet a young man — fifty-five — and while in the midst 



84 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

of a successful pastorate at Glasgow. His death 
moved almost every Baptist heart in Missouri, as 
well as thousands in other States. Truly a ' ' great 
man and a prince in Israel had fallen." 

He left to the world a good name, which is more 
valuable than riches, an impress for good upon thou- 
sands of characters which, by his preaching and 
writing, he had helped to form, and he published 
three books which are still blessing the world; one 
on Baptism, another on Communion, and still an- 
other on Campbellism Exposed. This last book is 
decidedly the best that has ever been written on that 
subject, and no one has ever had the temerity to at- 
tempt to answer it. 

Dr. Williams was a debater of great skill. He 
had numerous discussions, both oral and written, 
but the details and incidents of these debates are 
lost to the world. It is to be regretted that all of 
his notes and memoranda have been destroyed, and 
the author is indebted to the Baptist Encyclopedia 
and to his nephew, Dr. J. D. Murphy, of Charles- 
ton, Mo., for the facts concerning this great life 
found in this sketch. 

While we are not able to learn all the facts about 
this great man, we may be sure that all of his deeds 
have been recorded in a book which shall one day 
be laid open for all the world to read, and few other 
men will have a better record. 

"He was a faithful man, and feared God above 
many."— Neh. 7:2. 



SERMON NOTES ON MATT. 5:8. 

BY A. P. WILLIAMS, D. D. 

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see 
God." 

" I. Who are the pure in heart '( 

' ' II. Why are they blessed ? 

" 1. Who are the pure in heart 1 

(a) Sincerity is not purity of heart. Paul was 
very sincere while a persecutor. 

(b) Orthodoxy is not purity of heart. Many hold 
the truth in unrighteousness. Rom. 1:18. 

(c) The heart is the seat of the affections, foun- 
tain of actions. 

(d) Two kinds of a heart — carnal or fleshly, de- 
ceitful. Jer. 17:9. Then there is the spiritual, 
such as we receive in regeneration. Eze. 11:29; 
36:36. Jesus says make the tree good and his fruit 
good, or make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt. 

(e) How may we know that our heart is pure ? 
By their fruits ye shall know them. Paul specifies 
the fruits of the flesh and of the spirit in Gal. 
5:19-23. Compare Mark 7:21-23. Remember that 
if we live after the flesh we shall die, but if we 
through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body 
we shall live. Rom. 8:14. « They that are Christ's 
have crucified the flesh.' 

" We consider : 

(85) 



86 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

"2. Why they are blessed, (a) Shall see God. 
See. Enjoy. When ? Here — especially hereafter. 
David says : ' Whom have I in Heaven but thee ? 
And there is none upon earth I desire beside thee.' 

' 4 ' Blessed are the pure in heart.' ' 

This brief outline is a fair sample of the amount 
of manuscript he took into the pulpit with him. It 
is a fact that the really great preachers have, almost 
without exception, preached with but little or no' 
manuscript before them in the pulpit. There are 
Fuller, Graves, Broadus, Spurgeon, Hall, Ford and 
Williams who were never known to preach from 
manuscript. There never has been a man who could 
preach as well as any of these, who read his sermon. 
Sermon reading is not consistent with the best 
preaching. However closely a man may write his 
sermon, he should be able to preach it without the 
use of the manuscript. Read much to become full 
of the subject; write much to be accurate in the ex- 
pression of thought, but sjjeak, speak, SPEAK, 
when you enter the pulpit. Manuscript is to a ser- 
mon what a wet blanket is to the body — it has a 
cooling effect. 

We publish an article of Dr. Williams' on Regen- 
eration, which was written for Forces Christian Re- 
pository, April, 1866, and republished in that mag- 
azine in December, 1899. As will be seen, it is a 
clear and strong statement of the subject as it is 
taught in the Scriptures. 



REGENERATION. 

BY A. P. WILLIAMS, D.D. 

In these days of religious inquiry and discussion, 
much is said on almost every subject connected with 
Christian Theology. Every now and then I meet 
with something on this subject. I had supposed 
that it was generally very well understood, both in 
regard to what it is and the means by which it is 
produced. But it seems that in this I have been 
mistaken. There is no uniformity in sentiment 
here, even among Baptists. Some of our brethren 
confine the term in its meaning to the very work of 
the Spirit in the process of conversion, while others 
extend it so as to include the entire process. The 
former exclude instrumentality in the work, while 
the latter recognize the truth as the great instrument 
employed in effecting it. Now, why this diversity 
of opinion \ Is it because the Bible does not afford 
sufficient light to clear up the question ? Or, is it 
because we receive our notions from theologians 
who treat this, as well as every other, subject, as a 
part of their system, and interpret it to suit ? 

It is, perhaps, too much for me to claim that I 
have ascertained the truth in regard to this subject, 
and ask the brethren to hear me as they would an 
oracle; but I will "show mine opinion.'' 

The term "regeneration " is used but twice in the 
New Testament : By the Saviour in Matthew 19:28. 

(87) 



88 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

"Ye which have followed Me, in the regeneration 
when the Son of Man shall sit upon twelve thrones 
judging the twelve tribes of Israel." And by Paul 
in Titus 3:5. "Not by works of righteousness 
which we have done, but according to His mercy 
He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and 
renewing of the Holy Ghost." 

In the former of these examples it is difficult to 
tell precisely to what the term alludes. According 
to the punctuation in our version, it alludes to the 
renewing of the heavens and the earth at the com- 
ing of the day of God. But there are some who 
think that the comma should not be after the word 
"me," but after the word "regeneration," believ- 
ing that the Saviour expressed by the term some- 
thing in which the persons addressed already had 
followed him. I incline to the sense the punctua- 
tion gives it. If this is its sense, then the term 
cannot be confined to the very first act in the process 
of the renewal of the heavens and the earth; it must 
take into its meaning the whole process. When the 
work of regeneration is done the new heavens and 
the new earth stand out complete. 

In the latter passage the context sheds no light 
upon the meaning of the word. Paul simply states 
that God saves us ' ' by the washing of regenera- 
tion /" but we are left to study the meaning of the 
word from its own grammatical import. Regenera- 
tion is a compound word, made up of the word 
"generation" and the prefix "re." The word 
"generation " is expressive of the work of produc- 



Eegeneration. 89 

ing or giving existence to a thing. Hence, regen- 
eration must signify the reproducing of a thing. 
This leads us back to the contemplation of the thing 
first produced. In other words, it leads us back to 
the contemplation of the man as he came from the 
hands of his Maker. Well, the testimony of the 
Bible on this subject is, " God made man upright." 
(Ecc. 7:29.) Hence, God produced man, in com- 
mon with everything else which he made, u very 
good.' ? (Gen. 1:31.) We view man then, as he 
came from the hands of his Maker, as a holy being 
— innocent in life and pure in heart. But man fell. 
In his fall he experienced an internal as well as an 
external change, and the internal preceded the ex- 
ternal, the heart and the life both became corrupt. 
Therefore, while the Bible so abundantly testifies 
that man's "way is perverse before God," it as 
abundantly testifies to the corruption of the heart. 
Of man, as he was before the flood, it says : " Every 
imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only 
evil continually." (Gen. 6:5.) Of man, since the 
flood, it says : "The heart is deceitful above all 
things and desperately wicked." (Jer. 17:9.) 

It is in consequence of this that man is said to be 
"dead in trespasses and sins." With respect to the 
heart he is destitute of love, therefore of life; for 
love is life (1 John, 3:14, 15). His mind is carnal, 
enmity to God, this enmity is identical with death 
(Kom. 8:6). With respect to his life, he is dead in 
law; for it is written, "Cursed is every one that 
-continueth not in all things written in the book of 



90 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

the law to do them." (Gal. 3:10.) As a con- 
demned criminal he is bound over to death, and is 
obnoxious to the "wrath to come." 

Hence, in his regeneration, man is made alive in. 
every respect in which he can be said to be dead. 
He is made alive with respect to his heart when the 
love of God is shed abroad therein by the Holy 
Ghost. (Rom. 5:5.) Hence John says, "We 
know that we have passed from death unto life, 
because we love the brethren." He is made alive 
in law when the sentence of condemnation is re- 
voked. The Apostle says: "If any man be in 
Christ he is a new creature;" of course, then, re- 
generated; but "there is no condemnation to them 
who are in Christ. " (Rom. 1:8.) I do not see 
anything in the Scriptures that will justify us in 
regarding any one as regenerated who is still in his 
sins and under condemnation. When the work of 
regeneration is finished the "new man" must stand 
out before us, and we must be able to say of the sin- 
ner, ' i he was dead but is alive again. " Hence I am 
inclined to the belief that regeneration includes all 
that God does for us in making us his children. If 
it does, then it includes more than the mere begin- 
ning of the work — more than the mere vitalizing of 
the affections. It includes also our deliverance from 
the wrath to come. The whole work is expressed in 
the following passages of Holy Writ : "I will put 
my law in their inward parts and write it in their 
hearts. * * * I will forgive their iniquity, and I 
will remember their sin no more." (Jer. 31:33, 34.) 



Regeneration. 91 

If the former part of this work, only, were done for 
a man, he would be alive with respect to his heart, 
but he would be still dead in law; for until his sins 
are forgiven he remains bound over unto death. If 
the latter part, only, of this work were done for him, 
he would be still dead in his affections. But, thank 
God, these two works always go together. They are 
the internal and the external of regeneration. Where 
God creates in man a clean heart, and renews within 
him a right spirit, he also washes him thoroughly 
from his iniquity, and cleanseth him from his sin. 
Hence Jesus, in his conversation with Nicodemus, 
expresses the whole work by ' ' Except a man be born 
again he cannot see the kingdom of God;'' while he 
expresses both parts of it by "Except a man be horn 
of abater and the Spirit. " 

Viewing the subject in this light, the work of re- 
generation is effected by two distinct efficient causes, 
the Holy Spirit and the blood of Christ. The for- 
mer producing the internal, and the latter effecting 
the external ; while the Holy Ghost sheds abroad the 
love of God in the heart, the blood of Jesus Christ 
cleanses from all sin. 

Cambridge, Mo., April, 1866. 



CHAPTER V. 
JAMES P. BOYCE, D.D., LL.D. 

James Petigru Boyce was born in Charleston, 
S. C, Jan. 11, 1827. His father was a wealthy 
banker and planter; said to be the richest man in 
South Carolina. 

James P. Bojce was an exception to the rule that 
rich men's sons never amount to much. There have 
been very few sons of poor men who have become 
the equals of Jas. P. Bojce. The rich man's boy, 
as a rule, turns out bad, but God elected otherwise 
in this case, and few men have labored so unselfishly 
for the good of mankind and the glory of God. 

His earliest religious impressions were received 
under the preaching of that excellent and powerful 
preacher, Basil Manly, Sr., the father of Dr. Basil 
Manly, so long connected with the Seminary, and 
for a number of years President of Georgetown 
College, Ky. Dr. Boyce's father never made a pub- 
lic profession of faith in Christ and died out of the 
church. He was never fully reconciled to his son's 
becoming a preacher, looking upon it as throwing 
himself away. 

Under the preaching of that wonderful preacher, 
Richard Fuller, Boyce was converted, and on the 
22d of April, 1846, he was baptized and became a 
member of the church in Charleston, S. C. 

(92) 




JAMES PETTIGRU BOYCE, D.D., LL.D. 



James P. Boyce. D.D., LL.D. 93 

It means a great deal to a man to be brought 
under the influence of such a man as Richard Fuller 
at the very beginning of his religious life. It nec- 
essarily set before Boyce a high ideal and possibly 
inspired him with a lofty purpose. If we had more 
Fullers to preach we might have more Boyces con- 
verted. 

He graduated at Brown University, September, 
1847. Dr. Broadus, in his ^Memoir of James P. 
Boyce" says : 

1 ' It was a sad disappointment to Mr. Ker. Boyce 
when he found * * * that James was immova- 
bly resolved to be a minister. Besides a natural 
ambition that his son might become distinguished as 
a lawyer, and perhaps as a statesman — for both of 
which pursuits the father's insight discerned in him 
peculiar qualifications — he began already to hope 
* * * that James would be the man to take 
charge of his large estate and carry on his great 
business undertakings for the benefit of the whole 
family * * * it was hard for him to acquiesce 
in the youth's determination to ' throw away ' all his 
practical powers and possibilities upon the work of a 
minister." 

On the 14th of September, 1847, he was author- 
ized by the church in Charleston to preach the Gos- 
pel "wherever God in his providence might call 
him." He married Miss Lizzie L. Ficklen, Dec. 
20, 1848, and he at once settled in his native town, 
Charleston. 

For about one year he was editor of the Southern 



94 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

Baptist, and showed his ability in a number of ex 
eel lent editorials. Dr. Broadus says of him : " For 
one so young, with little experience in preaching, 
and no regular study of theology, Mr. Boyce had 
done remarkably well as an editor. Had he thought 
proper to continue in this line of work, his great ad- 
ministrative talent, wide and eager reading, special 
interest in practical enterprises, * * * and ra- 
pidity of composition, would sooner or later have 
made his editorial life a marked success.'' 

Dr. Boyce was a great theologian, and his work 
on Systematic Theology is one of the best books of 
its kind. An extract from this excellent work is 
published at the close of this sketch. His position 
on election and predestination is hyper- Calvinistic, 
and is somewhat extreme for a Baptist, yet no one 
will be willing to say that Dr. Boyce has not very 
ably defended that position, and, after all, how much 
difference is there between hyper-Calvinism and 
plain Calvinism ? 

For five years Dr. Boyce was pastor at Columbia, 
S. C. This was during the years of 1851-1855. 
During this pastorate a good, substantial church 
house was built, largely with Boyce's money. There 
was a steady growth in the membership during his 
pastorate. While in this work he gave a great deal 
of attention to the religious welfare of the negro 
slaves, and while all the North was agitated about 
the imaginary cruelty meted out to the black man of 
the South, such men as Broadus, Richard Fuller, 
Robert Ryland and Boyce were earnestly looking 



James P. Boyce, D.D., LL.D. 95 

after the negro's spiritual welfare. There were, no 
•doubt, many evils connected with slavery, but the 
malicious misrepresentations found in Harriet Beech- 
■er Stowe's Uncle Torres Cabin are slanders too vile 
for even a wretch such as the slave owner was rep- 
resented to be. Let us rejoice that the Union of 
States was preserved and that people of all sections 
•of our great Republic willingly rally around one flag, 
yet, in the behalf of such men as Boyce, we demand 
that misrepresentation cease. 

In November, 1854, he was elected Moderator of 
the historic Charleston Association, and after that 
he was frequently called on to preside at denomina- 
tional gatherings. He was on several occasions 
elected President of the Southern Baptist Conven- 
tion. His ability as a presiding officer was excep- 
tional. 

His first work as teacher of theology was in Fur- 
man University. This position he held until he suc- 
ceeded in establishing the Southern Baptist Theolog- 
ical Seminary, which is a monument to his energy 
and zeal. For thirty years he bent every energy of 
his powerful life in establishing this great school and 
putting it on a solid basis. 

Dr. Boyce undertook to establish a seminary for 
the reason, to use his own words, that "historians 
who have professed to write the history of the 
church have either utterly ignored the presence of 
those of our faith, or classed them among fanatics 
and heretics; or, if forced to acknowledge the preva- 
lence of our principles and practice among the earli- 



96 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

est churches, have adopted such false theories as to 
church power and the development and growth of 
the truth and principles of Scripture, that by all, 
save their most discerning readers, our pretentions 
to an early origin and a continuous existence have 
been rejected." 

The foregoing language is found in his address on 
6 ; Three Changes In Theological Institutions. " If 
this language means anything it means that Boyce 
believed in the "continuous existence" of Baptists 
from Christ, and that for this reason a seminary 
should be established to train men to defend the 
Baptist position. This is the more clearly brought 
out in the next few sentences of this same great ad- 
dress. He further says : 

"The Baptists in the past have been entirely too 
indifferent to the position they thus occupy. They 
have depended too much on the known strength of 
their principles. * * * We owe a change to 
ourselves — as Christians, bound to show an ade- 
quate reason for the differences between us and 
others; as men of even moderate scholarship, that it 
may appear that we have not made the gross errors 
in philology and criticism which Ave must have made 
if we be not right; as the successors of a glorious 
spiritual ancestry, illustrated by heroic martyrdom, 
by profession of noble principles, by the mainte- 
nance of true doctrines; as a Church of Christ, which 
he has ever preserved as the witness for his truth, 
by which he has illustrated his wonderful ways, and 
shown that his promises are sure and steadfast.' 1 



James P. Boyce, D.D., LL.D. 97 

His belief in the ' ' continuous existence ' ' of the 
Baptists from Christ to the present could not have 
been more unmistakably asserted. And this is one 
of the reasons why he wanted to establish a semi- 
nary, that men might be trained to defend that posi- 
tion. To this end he gave his noble life, and it 
would be enough to well-nigh cause the grand old 
man to turn over in his grave if he could know what 
efforts have been made, by those in authority, to de- 
stroy the very idea for which he gave his life, and. 
to so change the purpose of the seminary as to make 
it stand for the exact opposite of what he intended- 

Dr. Boyce, in numerous private conversations, 
asserted that he got these ideas, which he gave in 
this remarkable address, from Pres. Francis Way- 
land, of Brown University. (See Broadus' Memoir 
of Boyce, p. 142.) If this is true it follows that he. 
was not alone in his orthodox Baptist position. 

It has been charged that there are some things in- 
the Abstract of Principles of the Seminary which 
are not altogether in harmony with these ideas. 
While this has not been satisfactorily shown, yet, if 
it be granted to be true, it does not follow that 
Dr. Boyce did not hold these avowed positions, since 
Dr. Manly wrote this Abstract of Principles, and in- 
asmuch as it was written at a time when all Baptists 
believed in the " continued existence " of Baptists 
from Christ, it may not be as guarded in its state- 
ments on this point as it might be. 

While connected with the Seminary he was pastor 
at different times of small country churches, as was 

7 



98 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

his illustrious colleague, John A. Broadus. Al- 
though great in mental power and rich in purse, he 
was not above preaching the Gospel to the poor. 

During the civil war Dr. Boyce was a chaplain in 
the Confederate army and preached to the soldiers. 
He was opposed to the South's seceding, but when his 
State seceded he went with his State and cast his lot 
with the Confederacy. His experience in the army 
greatly helped his preaching, as he was forced to 
speak extempore when his habit had been to stick 
closely to his manuscript, which does not comport 
with the best preaching. 

At one time he was offered $10,000 per annum to 
accept the presidency of a South Carolina railroad; 
at another time he was offered the same amount to 
become president of a banking company. At any 
time he could have commanded a handsome salary at 
other employment, but he turned away from it all for 
Christ's sake* This is another answer to the slander 
that men go to preaching when they cannot succeed 
at anything else. 

Dr. Boyce was opposed to alien immersion (im- 
mersion performed by others than Baptists), and had 
Dr. Williams removed from the chair of Church 
Government in the Seminary, and took the place 
himself, because Dr. Williams believed that Baptists 
might receive the immersions of other denominations 
as valid baptism. (Memoir, p. 226, by Broadus.) 
Besides this, he publicly opposed the reception of a 
candidate for membership in the Louisville Broad- 
way Baptist Church, who wanted to come in on his 



James P. Boyce, D.D., LL.D. 99 

alien immersion, and his opposition was sufficient to 
keep the person from being received, although the 
pastor, Dr. J. L. Burrows, favored the reception of 
the candidate. (See Memoir, p. 284, by Broadus.) 
Dr. Boyce was a sound Baptist, a pillar of ortho- 
doxy, and he has left his impress on thousands who 
came under his influence. He went to his reward 
from Pau, France, whence he had gone in search of 
health, December 28, 1888. His body awaits the 
.resurrection in Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville, Ky. 



ofC, 



THE DOCTRINE OF DIVINE DECREES, 

BY J. P. BOYCE, D.D. 
[Extract from Boyce's Theology.] 

The doctrine of the decrees of God, or, as it is 
frequently called, predestination, is justly considered 
one of the most difficult of all the doctrines in which 
Christians believe. It involves some things hard to 
be understood, and the ignorant and unlearned have 
often wrested the doctrine to their own destruction. 
The difficulty of the doctrine and its dangers are, 
however, no good reason for refusing to study it. 
Least of all can any one afford, on this account, to 
refuse to accept it. The sole question with us is 
whether it is taught in the word of God. If so, it 
must be a part of our creed. For God would not 
have revealed it to us if he had not meant to have 
us receive it. In considering this doctrine we will 
first try to state plainly what the doctrine is. We 
will then present the Scripture proof for the view 
taken. We will then examine the objections, or 
theories, that are urged against the doctrine, and we 
will conclude our consideration with some practical 
suggestions concerning the manner of holding and 
teaching the doctrine. 

I. THE DOCTRINE STATED. 

The decrees of God may be defined as that pur- 
pose or plan by which, eternally and within himself^ 

(100) 



The Doctrine of Divine Decrees. 101 

God determines all things whatsoever that come to 
pass. Let us see now just what points are involved 
in this definition. 

1. God's purpose or plan. These decrees are de- 
fined to be God's purpose or plan. The term "de- 
cree " is liable to some misapprehension and objec- 
tion, because it conveys the idea of an edict, or of 
some compulsory determination. ' ' Purpose " has 
been suggested as a better word. "Plan" will 
sometimes be still more suitable. The mere use of 
these words will remove from many some of the 
difficulties or prejudices which make them unwilling 
to accept this doctrine. They perceive that in the 
creation, preservation and government of the world, 
God must have had a plan, and that that plan must 
have been just, wise and holy, tending both to his 
own glory and the happiness of his creatures. They 
recognize that a man who has no purpose or aim, 
especially in important matters, and who cannot, or 
does not, devise the means by which to carry out his 
purpose, is without wisdom and capacity, and un- 
worthy of his nature. Consequently, they readily 
believe and admit that the more comprehensive, and, 
at the same time, the more definite is the plan of 
God, the more worthy is it of infinite wisdom. 
Indeed they are compelled to the conclusion that 
God cannot be what he is without forming such a 
purpose or plan. * 

2. Formed eternally and within himself. Any 
such plan or purpose of God must have been formed 
eternally and within himself. (1) It must have 



102 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

been eternally purposed. For God's only mode of 
existence, as has been heretofore proved, is eternal, 
and therefore his thoughts and purpose and plan 
must be eternal. The fact also that his knowledge 
is infinite, and cannot be increased, forbids the 
forming of plans in time, which, as they become 
known to him, would add to that knowledge. It is 
also to be remembered that the plan must precede 
its execution, but as time began with that execution, 
the plan could not have been formed in time, and 
must be eternal. (2.) In like manner, also, was it 
formed within himself. He needed not to go with- 
out himself, either for the impulse which led to it, or 
the knowledge in which it was conceived. He had 
all knowledge, both of the actual and the possible, 
all wisdom as to the best end and means, all power 
to execute what he devised in the use, or without 
the use, of appropriate secondary means, and free 
will to select, of all possible plans and means, what- 
ever he himself should please; and the impulse 
which moved him existed alone in that knowledge 
and will. 

3. Embraced all things that should come to 
pass. It is as the result of this plan, or purpose, 
that things come to pass. According to this doc- 
trine of decrees, God assumes a certain responsi- 
bility for the universe. This, as we shall see, is the 
most difficult feature in the doctrine. Nevertheless 
we cannot hold to any real doctrine of decrees and 
deny this feature. We should, however, make a 
distinction at this point. When we say that God 



The Doctrine of Divine Decrees. 103 

determines whatever comes to pass, we should dis- 
tinguish between an efficacious determination and a 
2?ermissive determination. Some of the things which 
come to pass are the outcome of an efficacious de- 
cree on the part of God, that is, they come to pass 
because God determined not only that they might 
come to pass, but that he himself would bring them 
to pass. As to these things God, in decreeing them, 
took upon himself the responsibility of their coming 
to pass. There are other events, however, which 
may be truly said to have been in the decrees of 
God, and yet God repudiates responsibility for their 
ever coming to pass. His decree concerning these 
is a permissive decree. These things were in his 
plan or purpose as truly as the others. But the pur- 
pose as to these was a purpose to permit and not to 
effect. God did not simply foreknow these events. 
He actually made a place for them in his plan. In 
a true sense he intended them to occur. But he did 
not intend to bring them about. Such, for example, 
is the entrance of sin; such also are all sinful acts 
that have ever occurred. 

This distinction between efficacious and permissive 
decrees may not be altogether satisfactory. It may 
be difficult for us to see how God could plan to take 
sin in and not be himself responsible. But some 
such distinction we are bound to hold. For it is 
clear that God has not taken all events into his plan 
in just the same way and with the same sort of pur- 
pose or decree. 

In one or the other of these ways, however, God 



104 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

has decreed all things whatsoever that come to pass 
— not some things only, but all things ; not all things 
in general, but each thing in particular. It is use- 
less, we repeat, to try to evade this conclusion if we 
hold to any real doctrine of a plan, or purpose, on 
God's part concerning the universe which he has 
created. For so interwoven are the events of the 
universe that a lack of purpose as to any one event 
would involve a lack of purpose as to a multitude of 
others also — indeed as to every other event in any 
wise connected with the one not purposed. Events 
do not happen without sufficient cause or causes. 
If, therefore, a particular event is purposed, then 
the antecedent event or events which caused that 
particular event must have been purposed also. And 
if any particular event was not purposed, then the 
antecedent event or events that caused this particu- 
lar event were not purposed either. 

To such an extent is the force of this realized that 
it is admitted by all that in the mechanical universe, 
and even in the control of the lower animals, every- 
thing that comes to pass is purposed, or decreed. 
But the free agency of man, and of other rational 
and moral agents, is supposed to prevent God's pur- 
posing, or willing, all things with reference to them. 
It is said that such purposing would take away that 
free agency and consequent responsibility. 

The Scriptures, however, recognize the sover- 
eignty of God and his control of man, and also the 
free agency and accountability of man. Conscious- 
ness also assures us of the latter. The nature of 



The Doctrine of Divine Decrees. 105 

God, as has just been shown, proves the former. 
The Bible makes no attempt to reconcile the two. 
Paul even declines to discuss the subject, saying, 
"Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest 
against God?" (Horn. 9:20.) The two facts are 
plainly revealed. They cannot he contradictory, they 
must he reconcilable. That we cannot point out the 
harmony hetween them is a proof only of our igno- 
rance and limited capacity, and not that hoth are not 
true. It is certain, however, that whatever may be 
the influences which God exercises or permits to se- 
cure the fulfillment of his purposes, he always acts 
in accordance with the nature, and especially with 
the laws of mind that he has bestowed upon man. 
It is equally true that his action is in full accord with 
that justice and benevolence which are such essential 
.attributes of God himself. 

II. PROOF THAT THIS DOCTRINE IS TRUE. 

[But for the fact that this doctrine seems to lead 
to certain consequences that are hard to explain or 
receive, it would very likely not have been called in 
question, or at least would not have been so vio- 
lently opposed. The difficulties connected with it, 
however, and the opposition to it make it necessary 
to marshal with special clearness and force the proof 
in favor of it. 

1. A REASONABLE DOCTRINE. This is, first of all, 

a reasonable doctrine in itself. If one can divest 
liimself in his thought of the supposed hard conclu- 
sions that follow from the doctrine, he must see that 



106 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

it is reasonable. For if God is really the eternal, 
all-wise, omnipotent ruler of the universe, he as- 
suredly has had a plan concerning his universe. If 
he is really omniscient he must have known every- 
thing that would come to pass. It is not possible 
that God could have been surprised by anything that 
has ever occurred. But if he foreknew that every- 
thing would come to pass, and did not in any wise 
interpose to prevent, then he must at least have pur- 
posed to permit those things to come to pass. And 
so there is absolutely no rational way by which any- 
thing can be thought of as not coming at least per- 
missively under God's decrees. 

This rational view is greatly strengthened when 
we remember that God is not simply a spectator of 
the universe, foreknowing what will happen, but its 
actual ruler, and that he upholds all things by his 
power, and that absolutely nothing can happen inde- 
pendently of him. If everything that exists draws 
its existence and its support from God, and is able 
to act only by reason of the fact that God upholds it 
in its acting, how can it be that anything has ever 
come to pass without some kind of purpose on God's 
part concerning it ? 

The difficulty, from a rational point of view, is 
not in accepting the doctrine that everything that 
ever comes to pass has been always in God's plan. 
The real difficulty is to see how anything, even sin, 
has come to pass without GooVs having ~been responsi- 
ble for it. This difficulty will be solved if we ever 
understand fully the nature of God's rational crea- 



The Doctrine of Divine Decrees. 107 

tures and the element of freedom and responsibility 
which God has lodged in them. But meantime 
there is no difficulty, from a rational point of view, 
in holding that the plan, or purpose, of God in- 
cludes all things whatsoever that come to pass. This 
seems to be the only reasonable conclusion.] 

2. Sustained by the Scriptures. This doctrine 
is not only a reasonable doctrine, it has also the 
clear support of the Scriptures. This scriptural 
authority for the doctrine will appear from the fol- 
lowing statements and references, gathered with 
slight modifications from Hodge's t; Outlines, " pp. 
205-213 : (1) God's decrees are eternal : Acts 15:18; 
Eph. 1:4; 3:11; 1 Peter 1:20; 2 Thess. 2:13; 2 Tim. 
1:19; 1 Cor. 2:7. (2) They are immutable : Ps. 
33:11; Isa. 16:9. (3)' They comprehend all events. 
a. The Scriptures assert this of the whole system 
in general embraced in the divine decrees : Dan. 
1:31,35; Acts 17:20; Eph. 1:11. b. They affirm 
the same of fortuitous events : Prov. 16:33; Matt. 
10:29, 30. c. Also of the free actions of men ; 
Eph. 2:10, 11; Phil. 2:3. d\ Even the wicked 
actions of men : Acts 2:23; 4:27, 28; 13:29; 1 Peter 
2:S; Jude 4; Rev. 17:17. As to the history of 
Joseph, comp. Gen. 37:28 with Gen. 45:7, 8 and 
Gen. 50:20. See also Ps. 17:13, 11; Isa. 10:5, 15. 
(4) The decrees of God are not conditional : Ps. 
33:11; Prov: 19:21; Isa. 14:24, 27; 46:10; Rom. 
9:11. (5) They are sovereign: Isa. 40:13, 14; 
Dan. 4:35; Matt. 11:25, 26; Rom. 9:11, 15-18; 
Eph. 1:5, 11. (6) They include the means : Eph. 



108 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

1:4; 2 Thess. 2:13; 1 Peter 1:2. (7) They deter- 
mine the free actions of men : Acts 4:27, 28; Eph. 
2:10. (8) God himself works in his people that 
faith and obedience which are called the conditions 
of salvation: Eph. 2:8; Phil. 2:13; 2 Tim. 2:25. 
(9) The decree renders the event certain : Matt. 
16:21; Luke lS:31-33; 24:46; Acts 2:23; 13:29; 
1 Cor. 11:19. (10) While God has decreed the 
free acts of men, the actors have been none the less 
responsible : Gen. 50:20; Acts 2:23; 3:18; 4:27, 28. 

III. OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE. 

Owing to a belief that the purpose of God accom- 
plishing his will in his rational creatures is incon- 
sistent with their free agency, several classes of 
theologians have presented theories in opposition to 
the scriptural doctrine of decrees above set forth. 

1. Theory of the Socinians. The most objec- 
tionable theory is that of the Socinians, who deny 
that God can know what a free agent will choose 
or do before he acts or wills. They maintain that 
the will is, at the moment of its choice, in such per- 
fect equilibrium that there are no tendencies in any 
direction which prevent an absolute freedom of 
choice. No knowledge, therefore, of the will itself, 
nor of the circumstances which surround its action, 
will enable any one to say, before it is exercised, 
what will be its choice. Hence its act is entirely 
undetermined and undeterminable until the free 
agent wills. It cannot even be known beforehand 
by God himself. 



The Doctrine of Divine Decrees. 109 1 

The objections to this theory are obvious : 

(1) It is based upon a wrong conception of the 
nature of free agency; for it supposes each act of the 
will to be an arbitrary choice. But such arbitrary 
choice is not found even in God. As regards man, 
we know, from consciousness and experience, that 
his will is influenced by motives. Indeed, so truly 
is it governed by the nature of the man, and the at- 
tendant influences, that even we can predict his will 
and action in many cases, and only fail to do so per- 
fectly in all because of our limited knowledge. The 
omniscient God cannot fail to know everything that 
affects the decision, and therefore what the decision 
will be. 

(2) This theory is also opposed to the independ- 
ence of God. It supposes him to have made beings 
of such a nature that his own actions and will must 
depend upon theirs, and that he must await their de- 
cision, wherever it will have any influential bearings 
on anything future, before he can know or purpose 
what he himself will do. 

(3) As is also manifest from what has been said 
under the first objection, this theory is opposed to 
the omniscience of God. It expressly puts a limita- 
tion upon that omniscience by declaring that he is 
limited in his knowledge, at least so far as not to 
know beforehand the decision of the will of his 
creatures. But ignorance of this would also involve 
ignorance of all things in the future with which it 
may be connected. This would, in a world inhab- 
ited by free agents, constitute no small part of all 
that will occur. 



110 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

(4) It is opposed to the many instances men- 
tioned in Scripture of the prediction beforehand by 
God of even the bad actions of certain men. See as 
to Pharaoh, Exod. 7:3, 4; Hazael, 2 Kings. 7:13; 
Judas, Matt. 26:21; Peter, Matt. 26:34, etc. 

2. Theory of some Arminians. Another theory 
has been advanced by some Arminians, who main- 
tain that God does not know the free actions of men, 
not because he cannot know them, but because he 
chooses not to do so. 

(1) The first objection to this theory is that, were 
it true, it would not give greater freedom to the will 
than does the orthodox statement. 

Though this theory honors God more than the for- 
mer, it is inferior to it with respect to the object for 
which it is introduced. If it could be true, as the 
first theory claims, that so indeterminate is the 
future will of a free agent that even God cannot 
know it, then that future will would certainly be 
entirely under the control of the free agent, and he 
would, to the utmost extreme, be free. His will 
would be in absolute equilibrium in the act of choos- 
ing. Neither would any motive exist to influence 
that choice. It would be thoroughly arbitrary, and 
so would not be a matter of God's decree at all. 

But this second theory has not this advantage, for 
it does not suppose this condition of equilibrium. In 
claiming that God does not choose to know what he 
might know if he should so choose, it admits the cer- 
tainty of the event. For the certainty of what will 
occur is as much fixed as it could be if actually 



The Doctrine of Divine Decrees. Ill 

known to God. For the supposition is that God 
could know it if he chose so to do. (And it is clear 
that even God is not able to know an event as some- 
thing that will occur, if it were not certain that it 
will actually occur. 

We object to this theory then, first, on the ground 
that it has no advantage whatever over the orthodox 
theory. If it is said that the fact that God could 
know the event does not make God in any wise re- 
sponsible for the event, it can be answered that, ac- 
cording to the orthodox theory of God's permissive 
decrees, God is fully as free from responsibility for 
the events which he only decrees to pennit as he is, 
according to this theory, for the events which he is 
supposed to decree not to know. Moreover, this 
Arminian theory makes just as really a place for 
God's decree and influence in the free acts of his 
creatures as does the theory which we have shown 
to be the Scripture doctrine. For this Arminian 
theory does not try to rule out a free exercise of in- 
fluence on God's part to bring about any result that 
he desires or purposes. And so man, under the 
divine influence, is left not a whit more free, accord- 
ing to this theory, than he is under the theory which 
we have shown to be the doctrine of the Scriptures. 

(2) A second and chief objection to this theory is 
that it is based upon a wrong conception of the rela- 
tion of the will of God to his nature. That will does 
not confer the attributes of his nature, nor does it 
control them, but is itself influenced by them. God 
knows all things, not because he wills to know them, 



112 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

but because, from his nature, he has infinite knowl- 
edge — knowledge of all things possible, and knowl- 
edge of all things certain. If by his will he could 
refrain from knowing, he would change his nature. 
As well speak of a man not choosing to see with his 
eyes open the objects presented to his sight, as of 
God not choosing to know anything, whether that 
is only something which is possible or something 
which in any way has been made certain. 

3. Ordinary Arminian theory. There is, be- 
sides the theories already referred to, the ordinary 
Arminian theory. This is that God knows all 
things that will come to pass, but does not decree 
all, but only some of them. The decisions of free 
agents are among those things which he is supposed 
not to decree. This theory aims to provide for the 
larger freedom of God's rational creatures. But — 

(1) A manifest objection to the theory is that it 
does not accord with the statements of the Bible. 
This has already been made clear by the passages of 
Scripture which have been advanced in proof of the 
various points involved in the ordinary Calvinistic 
theory. 

(2) A second objection will be found in the fact 
that this theory does not thus secure that freedom 
from certainty in the decisions of free agents, which 
is the great reason for the objections to the decrees- 
of God concerning them. For if God knows that 
any event will occur, and can prevent it and does 
not, it is evident that he purposes that it shall exist, 
and makes it a part of his plan. The event is as ab~ 



The Doctrine of Divine Decrees. 113 

solutely certain to occur (if God actually knows it as 
an event that "will come to pass") as it could pos- 
sibly be under any purpose that God could have to 
bring it about. What God knows "will come to 
pass" is certain to come to pass. Otherwise he 
would know a thing as future which may not be 
future. His knowledge of it would be false. He 
would be himself deceived. 

(3) A third objection to this theory is that it fails 
to accomplish another object for which it is intro- 
duced, namely, to secure such a relation of God to 
any free act of man as will take away all influence 
exerted upon that act by God's decree. We have 
seen that, so far as the permissive decree is con- 
cerned, the "knowledge of the event does indeed ren- 
der it certain that the event is going to happen. 
But it is only when the decree is effective, and intro- 
duces means for its accomplishment, that the free 
agency is affected. As to this case also, the Armin- 
ian theory is no whit better than that of the Cal- 
vinist. 

The Arminian holds as firmly as does the Cal- 
vinist that God is sometimes directly active in his 
gracious influences upon men. Both hold that in all 
such gracious acts God is both merciful and just. 
Calvinists extend these gracious acts or influences 
no farther than do Arminian s, for they deny as 
strenuously as others that God acts effectively to 
lead men to wicked decisions and deeds. So far as 
the nature of God's actions upon free agents is con- 
cerned, both parties agree. But the Arminian 



114 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

theory, in asserting foreknowledge without pur- 
pose, and in alleging that the foreknowledge is all 
that there is in God, is contrary to the relations of 
God's will to his knowledge, as well as to the state- 
ments of Scripture about the decrees of God ; and 
while it leaves the event equally certain, supposes 
fully as much influence over the will of the creature 
and has equal difficulty in reconciling the free agency 
and consequent responsibility with the inevitable 
certainty of the event. 

(4) Chief objection. The chief objection to the 
•doctrine of decrees arises from the existence of sin. 
According to that doctrine sin has not occurred acci- 
dentally, neither was it simply foreknown; it was a 
part of the plan and purpose of God that it should 
exist. But for this difficulty the doctrine would 
seem a most natural one. It is not likely that any 
one would object to a doctrine of decrees such as 
this if it applied only to heaven, or to a realm 
where there is absolutely no sin. But when it is 
said that the coming and the existence of sin were, 
in any sense, a part of the plan or purpose of God, 
then there is a disposition to shrink back and say it 
cannot be so. 

The difficulty here is freely admitted. And in 
this respect the dispensation of God is surrounded 
with "clouds and darkness." 

The following statements, however, may be made : 

(1) That its being a part of the purpose or plan of 
God renders its presence no more difficult of expla- 
nation than that he should have foreknown its ap- 



The Doctrine of Divine Decrees. 115 

pearance, and not exerted his unquestioned power 
to prevent it. (2) That amid all the darkness we 
can jet see that God is so overruling sin as to cause 
it greatly to redound to his glory and the happiness 
of his creatures. (3) That even without any expla- 
nation of it, we can rest in our knowledge of the 
justice, wisdom and goodness of God. (4) That we 
cannot see how its possible entrance into the world 
could have been prevented, consistently with the 
creation and putting upon probation of beings with 
moral natures, endowed with free will, and neces- 
sarily fallible because mere creatures.* And the 
right thus to put on probation, without such influ- 
ence as would make his creatures certainly perse- 
vere in holiness, is one which none could justly deny 
to God. But that which God could possibly (under 
;any contingency) permit, cannot, if it has actual ex- 
istence, militate against his pure and holy character. 

(The following has been added to what Dr. Boyce 
wrote, by Dr. F. H. Kerfoot, who revised his Theol- 
ogy. B. M.B.): 

[In concluding this treatment of the doctrine of 
•decrees some practical suggestions should be made 



* The idea that God could not have kept sin from entering the uni- 
-verse, and have done this " consistently with the putting upon probation 
of beings with moral natures, endowed with free will, and neccesarily 
fallible," is an idea often advanced. It seems, however, hardly tenable. 
"With God aU things are possible." And this thing could not have 
b>een difficult. If Satan could enter Eden and, by his wiles, persuade to 
sin, aud do this entirely consistent with man's moral nature and free 
will, surely God, if he had seen Jit, could have persuaded and strength- 
ened man against sin ; and could have done so entirely " consistent with 
man's moral nature and free will and the probation upon which man 
was put." As Dr. H. B. Smith has said : " Every explanation of sin 
.must be false, if at the expense of God's sovereignty and omnipotence." 



116 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith, 

as to the manner of holding and teaching the doc- 
trine. 

1. In so far as this doctrine is taught in God's 
word, it is not a doctrine for the unconverted. The 
Bible addresses itself to the unconverted in the 
fullest recognition of their personal responsibility. 
And its special message to them is that "God so 
loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, 
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, 
but have everlasting life." It says to all such: 
"Him that cometh unto me 1 will in no wise cast 
out," "whosoever will, let him come." It is far 
better for all unconverted persons to attend first to 
this side of the Bible teaching. God addresses him- 
self to them in this way just as if the doctrine of de- 
crees had never been given. God will take care of 
his decrees. We cannot. But our personal respon- 
sibility must be attended to, or it will soon be too 
late. 

2. The doctrine of decrees, or predestination, as 
a rule, does not mean very much to beginners in 
Christian faith. As Dr. Shedd well says: "This 
doctrine belongs to the higher ranges of Christian 
truth." It is high — they cannot attain unto it. Let 
them not, however, deny that it is a truth. Let 
them follow on to know the Lord. But, meantime, 
until the doctrine comes to have some real signifi- 
cation to them, let them shrink from speaking or 
thinking too confidently concerning it. 

3. It is pre-eminently a doctrine for maturer 
Christians. And to these it is not a doctrine for 



The Doctrine of Divine Decrees. 117 

metaphysical hair- splitting, but a doctrine of practi- 
cal Christian faith. Paul, the greatest and most 
confident proclaimer of the doctrine, nowhere un- 
dertakes to harmonize it with the doctrine of free 
agency and human responsibility. He left the 
''harmonizing" with God, knowing that, from 
God's point of view, the harmonizing would be 
easy. To the apostle, however, as a humble Chris- 
tian man, the doctrine simply meant what he knew 
to be true, that all things, even "these little lives 
of ours, are interwoven with God's eternal pur- 
poses." The doctrine of decrees, or predestination, 
was to him like a great harbor to a storm-tossed 
mariner, a place where he might now and then an- 
chor in peace, sheltered from every stormy wind, 
bathed in the sunshine of God's eternal love. In 
the midst of life's surging forces and uncertainties, 
it was a comfort to fall back on the thought that 
God lives and reigns, and is never taken by surprise 
or defeated in his eternal purposes, and that " all 
things work together for good to them that love 
God." He fell back on this doctrine at times as on 
the bosom of God, persuaded that "neither death, 
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, 
nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, 
nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to 
separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ 
Jesus our Lord."] 



CHAPTER VI. 
MAJOR W. E. PENN. 

Evangelist W. E. Penn, generally known as 
Major Penn, was born in Rutherford county, Tenn., 
August 11, 1832. His early life was spent with his 
parents on a farm, and he worked with the slaves in 
the fields until he was almost grown. 

He was born again near the present town of 
Milan, Tenn., in 1847, at the age of fifteen years. 
The story of his conversion can be better told in his. 
own words as follows : 

"As he [the preacher] said these things I thought 
he was looking straight at me. This was the arrow 
that entered my heart and wrought in me the con- 
viction that my condemnation was just and nothing 
could save me but the mercy of God. My heinous 
sins rose up and testified against me; they stood like 
mountains around me and left no way of escape;, 
and then the sermons, prayers, tears and entreaties, 
of friends and parents, and God's patience, long- 
suffering and tender mercies poured down upon me 
like melted lead. In agony of soul I wrestled with 
God until 2 o'clock in the morning, then I got to 
the point that I could do nothing myself but turn 
my case over to Him, bad as I was, and when I did 
this He saved me for His mercy's sake. Oh, what 
a change ! My heart was filled with love, joy and 

(118) 




W. E. PENN. 



Major W. E. Penn. lltf 

peace; the light of the few tallow candles was all we 
had, but the place was as bright to me as the noon- 
day sun. Only a few old brethren and sisters had 
remained with me, and their faces were lighted up 
as with the light of heaven. I had often made 
sport of them, laughed at their singing; but that 
night, as they rejoiced over me and sang : 

' Tongue can never express 
The sweet comfort and peace 
Of a soul in its earliest love,' 

1 thought this was the sweetest music I ever heard. 
I often think that when I get to heaven, as I enter 
the pearly gates, I want to see Jesus first, and next 
to him those good old Christians who watched and 
prayed with me that night." 

In October of the same year he was baptized into- 
the fellowship of the Beachgrove Baptist church by 
Elder Griffin Wright. 

The preacher who preached the sermon under 
which he was convicted was Eld. James Hurt, fa- 
miliarly known as "Uncle Jimmie. " He was an 
obscure backwoods preacher. What encouragement 
is this to brethren in the out-of-the-way places, 
working for nearly nothing, yet preaching the glo- 
rious gospel of the Son of God. We owe a debt of 
gratitude to that class of men which we shall never 
pay, but, like Paul, they "have fought a good fight 
* * * and there is laid up for them a crown of 
righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, 
shall give them at that day." Many of them will 
receive a greater reward and stand higher in heaven 



120 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

than any of these great men whose history is given 
in this book. 

Major Penn began life for himself by reading law 
with the law firm of Williams & Wright, Lexington, 
Tenn. When in his twentieth year he opened a law 
office in Lexington and began a career of successful 
practice. After his marriage to Miss Carrilla Sayle 
he became somewhat of a politician and identified 
himself with the Whig party, and he made a great 
many political speeches, and opposed the secession 
of Tennessee from the Union. 

It is needless to say that Tennessee failed to fol- 
low his advice, but when the State seceded he went 
with his State and raised a company and was elected 
captain of it, and went into the Confederate army. 
After suffering imprisonment he was exchanged, and 
was raised by E. Kirby Smith to the rank of Major, 
which title he bore to his death. 

After the war was over he moved to Jefferson, 
Texas, and again entered the practice of law. The 
war had ruined him financially and he went to Jef- 
ferson without a law book of any kind, and he had 
no money to buy any. He borrowed a copy of the 
Digest Laws of Texas and began work. In less 
than two weeks he was given a case that paid him 
$400 in gold. From that time on, as lon£ as he 
practiced law, he had a lucrative practice. 

The Baptists in Jefferson were very weak, and 
only had preaching once a month. Bro. Penn and 
wife cast their lot with the little weak church, and 
he was soon elected Superintendent of the small 



Major W. E. Penn. 121 

Sunday-school. There were only thirty-five stu- 
dents in the school at that time, when Jefferson had 
-a population of ten thousand. He threw himself 
into the work and the next Sunday there were 
seventy-five in the school, and,in two months' time 
there were four hundred students — the largest school 
by far in Jefferson. What Major Penn did, he did 
with his might. 

Professional and business men may learn a lesson 
here. To join a little, weak, unpopular church, 
and to engage actively in its work, will not hurt 
their business. Major Penn succeeded grandly, and 
yet he identified himself with the smallest and most 
unpopular church in town. 

While living in Jefferson he was pressed into the 
work of the ministry. Dr. J. H. Stribbling, pastor 
of the church in Tyler, Texas, asked Bro. Penn to 
conduct a prayer meeting at nine o'clock one morn- 
ing. There was such an interest manifest that he 
was prevailed on to remain in Tyler and conduct the 
meeting again that night. The interest was so great 
he could not get away, and he stayed and held a 
protracted meeting. Scores were converted and 
added to the church, and Major Penn had become 
an evangelist without intending it. 

Within two weeks he was invited to Bryan, Texas, 
to hold another meeting; after that he went to Cal- 
vert and then to Eavasota; afterward to Anderson, 
then to Waco, and so on to the end of his life. He 
was never idle. He held meetings in country, town 
and city, in almost every Southern State, and be- 



122 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of tlie Faith 

sides that he spent several months in England and 
Scotland, where he met with good success. 

Altogether there were about twenty thousand 
public professions of faith under his preaching. He 
strengthened the churches, held up the hands of pas- 
tors, denounced sin and warned the sinner. A fair 
sample of his style of preaching may be seen in the 
outline of a sermon on the "Divinity of Christ," 
which is published at the close of this sketch. 

On Saturday, the 27th of April, 1895, he died. 
One thousand people attended his funeral, which 
was conducted May 1, 1895, at Eureka Springs, 
Ark., where he had moved some years before, and 
had built a beautiful and substantial stone residence, 
a picture of which may be seen on another page. 
Eld. W. P. Throgmorton, D.D., preached his funer- 
al from the text : "He that goeth forth and weep- 
eth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come 
again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with 
him."— Ps. 126:6. 



OUTLINE OF SERMON ON THE DIVINITY 
OF CHRIST. 

BY W. E. PENN. 

When compared with the subject we have before 
us to-day, all other subjects sink into utter insignifi- 
cance. It is the one great subject upon which all 
future hopes depend — upon which all future happi- 
ness hangs. It is my purpose to so present this 
subject to-day that every man and woman who are 
really, truly sceptical, will be compelled, if honest, 
to admit that I have dealt fairly and honestly with 
the subject. 

That a man called Jesus Christ — and sometimes, 
by way of reproach, Jesus of Nazareth — once lived 
upon the earth is an undisputed fact with all who 
place any reliance in history, either sacred or pro- 
fane. The ground of dispute concerns divinity. 
Was He man ? just such as we are, and no more ? 
or was He what He claimed to be — what the Bible 
declares He was, the Son of God, the Saviour of the 
world? I assume the affirmative; that is, that He 
was and is just what He claimed to be — the Son of 
God, far more than man — though born of the Virgin 
Mary, and I propose to establish it in the mind (not 
in the heart) of every man who has not come into 
court with his verdict in his pocket. 

In speaking of things that belong to this time, 
the most important to which we could refer would 

(123) 



124 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

be a trial for life. When such a trial comes before 
the court, our wisest jurists and ablest law-makers 
have determined that, in order to give the accused 
a fair and impartial trial, a venire shall be sum- 
moned from the body of the county, and that each 
man so summoned shall be sworn, in the presence 
and hearing of the accused, that he will true an- 
swers make to all questions asked him by the court, 
or its authority, touching his qualifications as a juror 
in the case of the State, or Commonwealth, as the 
case may be, against A. B., the defendant. 

Something like the following questions are asked : 
"Have you expressed or formed an opinion as to 
the guilt or innocence of the defendant ? " If the 
man answers in the affirmative, a second question is 
asked, which is : "Is there fixed in your mind such 
a conclusion that the same could not be removed by 
the hearing of the evidence and the charge of the 
Court?" If lie answers in the affirmative, he is 
turned aside as incompetent to do justice in the case. 
My hearers are the venire summoned for jurors in 
the trial of a case of far more importance to each 
man and woman before me than if they were on trial 
for their lives, because upon the decision of this 
case hangs the destiny of the soul for a never- 
ending eternity. 

In testing your competency to sit as jurors in the 
case we have before us, I will not ask the first ques- 
tion; that is, "Have you formed or expressed an 
opinion as to the truth or falsity of the doctrine of 
the divinity of Christ ? " for it is but reasonable to 



Divinity of Christ. 125 

suppose that all have done the one or the other, and 
perhaps both, but I deem it proper and right that I 
should ask the second question : "Is there formed 
in jour mind, from prejudice or otherwise, such a 
conclusion that the same cannot be removed by log- 
ical reasoning and stern facts?" In other words, 
have any of you come into court with your verdict 
in your pocket ? If any shall be compelled to an- 
swer in the affirmative, it must be admitted that 
such are incompetent jurors, and should be turned 
aside as wholly incapable of rendering a correct de- 
cision. 

It is but candid to admit that every unbeliever's 
mind is more or less prejudiced, but it might be 
very profitable for each one to inquire as to the 
cause of this prejudice. First, I will say that it 
cannot be based upon the religion taught by Jesus 
Christ and His Apostles, because every honest man 
is bound to admit that if the whole world would 
admit their teachings there never would be another 
crime committed, but that this would become the 
paradise of God. The only reply that skepticism 
can make to this is that man is wholly incapable of 
attaining to this high estate. In this reply they 
admit two great gospel truths, to-wit : Man's total 
depravity and his utter inability to extricate himself. 
There are two causes for real skepticism. I say 
real, because I believe that there are real skeptics, 
men and women, who are really honest. 

A blind man put in the midst of a garden of the 
prettiest flowers that ever grew on the earth, may 



126 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

hear his wife and his mother praising them for their 
beaut) 7 and sweetness, and yet, as he walks among 
them, he is continually being pricked by the thorns 
hidden by the flowers, and much pain is all that he 
finds; and that man almost doubts the honesty of his 
own wife and his old mother. When the natural 
man who is spiritually blind walks into the beautiful 
garden of flowers — the Bible— he is continually 
pricked with the thorns— the great truths, which re- 
mind him that he is a sinner — that he is a lost soul — 
that he must repent of and give up all his sins, and 
in all these things he cannot see any beauty; but 
these thorns of truth continually prick him, until he 
is led to doubt whether his wife is honest or his 
mother and his friends in their expressions of de- 
light in the Word. The real skeptic is always a 
man of shallow thought on this subject, though of 
great mind generally, and thoughtful on other sub- 
jects. Being accustomed to : rely on his natural wis- 
dom in all earthly matters, and knowing no other 
source of wisdom, he is led astray in this matter. 
He overlooks that passage in the word of God 
which says: "The natural man receiveth not the 
things of the spirit of God, because they are fool- 
ishness to him; neither can he know them, because 
they are spiritually discerned." 

He loses his soul in trying to reason his way to 
God. 

Others become skeptical because of the samples 
of Christianity we too often furnish them to look at. 



Divinity of Christ. 127 

INFIDEL HYPOCRITES. 

Strange, but true, we have what I would call In- 
fidel Hypocrites. They are men (sometimes women) 
who profess to be infidels, but they are not. When- 
ever you find a young man professing to be an infi- 
del, you will find one who will never die of brain 
fever, but will be almost certain to die of the " big- 
head. " You will never find one such with brains 
enough to attract the attention of any respectable 
fever. The little fellow is trying to impress some 
old man's girl that he has some sense — that he is 
'* edicated " — but the fact is that he could never get 
an appointment to a lightning-bug convention. 

And if by any fraudulent device he could get 
such an appointment, the lightning-bugs would 
laugh themselves to death at his little light. The 
committee on credentials would swear that he was a 
gnat, and that his little light was fox-fire, and he 
would be sent home. If he ever gets married the 
woman he gets will wish that she had married a 
gnat in less than a week, for she could kill the gnat 
and not be charged with murder, but if any woman 
should kill such a fellow in any of the States where 
murder is defined to be "The killing of any reasona- 
ble creature in being," I am of the opinion that she 
could make a good strong fight on the point that the 
thing she killed was not a reasonable creature in 
"being, but only a two-legged creature in being. 

Another class of so-called infidels is represented 
by the fellow who manages to get credit in the 
INorth and East, and goes up there and buys a large 



128 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith 

stock of goods, wares and merchandise — all om 
credit — and brings them down to this country and 
sells them out and gets the money and puts it in his- 
wife's pocket, and then goes into a bankrupt court, 
or some other court, and swears that he has been 
swindled out of all he had, or that it was burned up 
in the house (which he set on fire), and then he 
makes a settlement with his creditors, and it is not long 
until he is in business in the name of his wife, or 
some other person; and so, when the big meetings 
come along, he feels his sins so much and a good 
deal more than any one else, except the cold- 
blooded murderers, but knowing that a just God 
cannot forgive his sins unless he will pay back his- 
ill-gotten money — the money he stole — and not 
being willing to do that — he must give some reason 
for at least not trying to become a Christian, and so 
he looks as wise as an owl and says, "I'm an in- 
fidel." Poor fellows tries to hide under an infidel 
umbrella, which is made of a very thin article of 
mosquito-bar goods. 

HONEST SKEPTICS. 

It is to this class I will now address what I have- 
to say. In attempting to establish the divinity of 
Christ the custom has been to ASSUME that the 
Bible is of divine origin, and then to turn to its 
pages for proof of the position. But the honest 
skeptic says : "This is taking an unfair advantage 
of me; if I admit that the Bible is what it professes 
to be — that it is worthy of credit — I will then have 



Divinity of Christ. 129 

admitted all that could be required of me, and as the 
Bible teaches that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, I 
would be a fool to deny his divinity." And he fur- 
ther says : " I deny the divinity of the Bible; I deny 
the credibility of your witness." I propose to use 
the Bible in discussing this subject, but I propose to 
establish its divinity before I put it on the stand as 
a witness. 

I will present the subject in the nature of a bill in 
Chancery. I file the bill for, and represent the 
complainants — those who are contending and claim- 
ing that Jesus Christ is what he professes to be — 
against all who deny his divinity as respondents. 

The only way to handle any subject fairly and 
honestly is to begin at the bottom; and so I will 
begin at the very bottom of this. 

My first proposition is that there is more or less. 
uncertainty as to the authorship of every book on 
earth, the book called the Bible alone excepted. To 
state the proposition in another way : The Bible is 
the only book on earth the authorship of which can 
be ascertained and determined by reading its con- 
tents. 

FIRST. 

It must be admitted that this book was made by- 
some intelligent being, or beings, at some time, or 
times, in the past of the world's history. 

SECONDLY. 

It must be admitted that it was not made by any- 
lower order of intelligence than man. 



130 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

THIRDLY. 

It must be admitted that there is no higher order 
of intelligence known in the world than man. Here 
we find that we are irresistibly FORCED to the con- 
clusion that this wonderful book called the Bible 
was 

MADE BY MAN 

or bj some higher order of intelligence than man, of 
which we know nothing at all outside of the Bible, 
except what we learn from the great Book of Nature 
•around us. My next proposition is that it is wholly 

IMPOSSIBLE FOR MAN, OR MEN, TO HAVE BEEN THE 
AUTHORS OF THE BIBLE. 

If I make this point then my case is gained, for 
I will have established the divinity of the Bible, and 
liave made it a competent witness, entitled to full 
credit for all that it says, whether you or I under- 
stand it or not. If men made this book we call the 
Bible, they must have been of a much higher order 
of intelligence than any now living, or who have 
lived in the past 1800 years, because no one has 
been found able to fathom its depths or to scale its 
heights. If such an order of intelligence ever ex- 
isted among men, is it not passing strange and most 
unaccountable that they never made 

THEIR MARK OR LEFT THEIR IMPRESS 

upon anything else, except to make and hand down 
to their posterity this wonderful book — the Bible ? 
Is it not the strangest thing beneath the sun that 



Divinity of Christ. 131 

these great men — the authors of the Bible — never 
left any other evidence of any kind whatever of 
their superior intelligence, their great learning, their 
wonderful vision, except in making and handing 
down to their posterity this, the most wonderful of 
all books now upon the whole earth? It must be 
admitted that nothing short of a very intelligent 
being, or beings, could have been the author, or 
authors, of the Bible, and that an intelligent being, 
or beings, would have had some very important end 
in view — would have had reasonable ground for be- 
lieving that they would be remunerated, compen- 
sated in some way, for this immense labor in thus 
making or handing down to their posterity such a 
book as we find the Bible to be ? Let us go back to 
the age, or ages, in which the Bible must have been 
written, if we place any confidence in history, either 
sacred or profane. The art of printing not yet 
being known in the world, it could not have been to 
get gain by its sale, because they could not have 
written them fast enough; and because they would 
have been so unpopular there would have been no 
demand for them. 

It could not have been to get unto themselves a 
great name at the expense of bringing everlasting 
infamy and disgrace upon themselves and their pos- 
terity, because it is recorded in the Bible that all 
men are conceived in sin and brought forth in in- 
iquity — that all men go forth from infancy speaking 
lies — that none doeth good, no not one — that all 
have gone astray, that the heart is deceitful above 



132 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith 

all things and desperately wicked — that the thoughts 
of the heart are evil, and that continually — that the 
tongue is set on fire of hell — that man is of his 
father, the devil — that he is filled with all unright- 
eousness, and many other Scriptures on the same, 
line teach that man is a cesspool of iniquity, and all 
of which applies to and includes ALL MEN, which 
must of necessity include the author, or authors, of 
the Bible — if man be its author. It is impossible to 
believe that any man or men could have written thus 
about themselves, and their children, and their chil- 
dren's children, without a very fair prospect of great 
gain in some way; and as I have shown that it was 
utterly impossible for them to have even expected 
any remuneration whatever, it is impossible that 
man could have been the author of the Bible. 

GOOD OR BAD. 

If men were the authors of the Bible, they must 
have been either good or bad men. They could not 
have been good men, because good men could not 
have originated and palmed off on the credulity of 
their own children and their children's children, 
without any hope of being benefitted thereby, such 
a miserable fraud as the Bible must be if man be its 
author. They could not have been bad men, be- 
cause bad men — men of such wicked and depraved 
hearts as all men are declared to be in their natural 
state, in the book called the Bible — never could have 
conceived of such pure and exalted principles of 
morals as we find laid down and taught in the 






Divinity of Christ. 133 

Bible — so pure, upright and holy that no man can 
be found in all the earth who can live up to, keep 
and observe, in letter and spirit. A bad tree cannot 
bear good fruit. Here the most skeptical, if not 
under a fatal delusion, must ground their arms, 
must make a complete surrender, and make the 
honest confession that it is wholly impossible for 
man to have been the author of the Bible. 

If man was the author of the Bible, it must be ad- 
mitted that it is the basest fraud upon the whole 
earth, and it must be also admitted that this stu- 
pendous fraud — this fountain source of lies, this 
cesspool of iniquity has remained uncovered — has 
baffled the skill and ingenuity of thousands of the 
wisest men that have lived in the past 1800 years, 
because no man has ever professed to understand it. 

IS THE RELIGION OF CHRIST OF MAN OR OF GOD ? 

It cannot be of man, because it is not within the 
range of possibility that any institution or organiza- 
tion of man could have passed under the dark clouds 
— could have crossed the stormy seas — could have 
•crossed the rivers of blood — could have withstood 
the unceasing war of its millions of enemies, among 
whom have been many of the most learned men in 
all the professions and avocations of the last 1800 
years, and far more than this, could have survived 
the seemingly internal divisions and strife, often 
ending in some of the most cruel and bloody wars; 
and, even more than this, could have survived the 
miserable conduct of the hosts of traitors — black- 



134 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

hearted HYPOCRITES— the religion of Jesus 
Christ has always had within her camps, from Judas 
Iscariot down to the present time. Could that time- 
honored institution — Free Masonry-^-have withstood 
one-hundredth part as much and still have maintained 
its existence ? Every honest man must answer with 
an emphatic "NO, NO; Free Masonry would be a 
stench in the nostrils of a thief." But in the face 
of all these things combined, and many others I 
could mention, destroying, exterminating from ex- 
istence this religion, or even lowering its standard 
of excellency, or in any manner marring its purity, 
it has come out from it all without the smell of any 
or all of these terrible hot fires upon its garments;, 
and to-day it presents a smoother surface than at 
any age of its existence, and is the pride and admi- 
ration of the entire civilized world — the few skeptics 
alone excepted — and even they do not wish to see 
the Bible destroyed. Gamaliel, one of the shrewd- 
est men who lived in the Apostolic times — and who 
was an unbeliever, a skeptic — said: " If this religion 
be of man it will come to naught;" and now, if 
Gamaliel could come to life, he certainly would say : 
"This religion cannot be of man, because it has 
stood for over 1800 years the severest tests that 
anything on earth ever written has stood, and has a 
firmer hold on mankind than it has ever had." 
Yes, it is a fact that the glorious principles of this 
religion are falling upon the minds and hearts of the 
heathen nations of the earth like the small rain upon 
the mown grass. To-day her blood-stained banner 



Divinity of Christ. t35> 

is unfurled in every land beneath the sun. The re- 
ligion of Jesus Christ cannot be of man, because, ini 
the hour of death, all man's institutions have been 
renounced as insufficient to give peace, solace and 
comfort in that trying moment; but not one pro- 
fessor of the religion of Jesus Christ was ever known 
to renounce it upon a deathbed ; and this is the more 
worthy of note since it is a fact that this religion has 
had within its camps many of the weakest minds, 
and that many of them have endured the severest 
tests, such as being tortured in stocks, being sawn 
asunder, and burned at the stake, etc. 

My last witness is that peculiar people, scattered 
among all the nations and tribes of the earth, called 
Israelites, or Jews. They once lived together as 
other nations — had their civil laws and all the para- 
phernalia of government as other people, but some- 
thing over two thousand years ago they were over- 
powered by the Gentiles — their land was taken from 
them — the walls of their beautiful Jerusalem was 
beaten down, and they were led away captive and 
scattered among the nations and tribes of the earth, 
and so have they remained until this day. 

During all these long years of captivity, long and 
weary years of exile from their fatherland — years to 
uncalled-for abuse and bitter persecution, even to the 
shedding of the blood of their wives, mothers, old 
men and little children, they have strictly main- 
tained their nationality, and the same form of wor- 
ship observed by their fathers over three thousand 
years ago. No nation or tribe that has ever existed 



136 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith 

upon the earth can furnish a history like unto the 
Jews. None so remarkable, so wonderful, so very 
mysterious. Without the Bible the history of the 
Jews presents a problem, a mystery, that no human 
wisdom can solve. The intelligent mind knows that 
there must be a reason — that there must be a cause 
for the Jews being, for more than 1800 years, in 
this scattered condition, and yet maintaining their 
nationality and their religion intact. Other nations 
have been broken up and scattered over the earth, 
and some have become extinct; the Jews alone are 
the same, whether under their king in their own 
land, living in their gilded palaces, or homeless 
wanderers among the nations and tribes of the earth 
— hated, despised, and often persecuted even unto 
death. Can the wisdom of this world, 

UNAIDED BY THE BIBLE, 

account for these things ? Where would human rea- 
son begin ? Would you attempt to account for it 
because of the ignorance of the Jews ? You would 
utterly fail, because, if all the Jews were gathered 
together from all the nations and tribes of the earth, 
and colonized upon some of the islands of the sea, 
you would see the most intelligent nation of all the 
earth. If you will bring me one Jew or Jewess who 
cannot read or write, I will bring you five that can 
speak five different languages. 

POVERTY. 

Would you say that it was because of their pov- 



Divinity of Christ. 137 

erty ? IV hen you colonize them let them carry with 
them just what belongs to them, and you will have 
the wealthiest nation in the world. 

Outside of the lids of the Bible these things must 
be and remain a profound mystery until the death- 
knell of time shall be sounded. 

A BILL OF DISCOVERY. 

In the Chancery Court, when the opposite party 
:are in possession of documentary evidence, or of 
facts that cannot be obtained from any other source, 
the party desiring the information, or evidence, may 
file what is called a Bill of Discovery, representing 
that the other party are in possession of the docu- 
ments, or facts, and that they cannot be had from 
any other source, and ask that they may be required 
to bring them into court, to be used in the trial of 
the case. I here file a Bill of Discovery, and ask 
that the Jews, who are a portion of the respondents, 
come into court and bring with them the Old Testa- 
ment. My request is granted and I obtain an inter- 
locutory order, or decree, and the Jews come into 
court and bring the Old Testament; and now let me 
read a little from it and see if we cannot have the 
mystery explained. 

If in this old book we find that a correct history 
of the Jews was written over four thousand years 
ago; that is, that God caused a man, or that a man 
four thousand years ago did write a correct history 
of the Jews for four thousand years to come, will 
not every honest man be compelled to admit that the 



138 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

Old Bible is not of man alone, because it would be 
impossible for a man to look through the dark vale 
of the future for four thousand years and tell with 
perfect accuracy what should occur with a nation of 
people during this time ? If we shall find that it is 
true that a correct history of the Jews was foretold 
4000 years ago, and that it is recorded in the 
Bible — the Old Testament — will you not, as an 
honest man, admit that the Old Testament is of 
divine origin, 

THAT IT IS OF GOD? 

And if you are compelled to admit that the Old 
Testament is of God, you are bound to admit that 
the New Testament is of God, and if you admit 
that the New Testament is of God, you are bound to 
admit that 

JESUS CHRIST IS THE SON OF GOD, 

just as He is represented in both the Old and New 
Testaments. Moses said, over three thousand years 
ago, of and concerning the Jews : ' ' Cursed shalt 
thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the 
field; cursed shalt thou be in thy basket, and thy 
store; cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the 
fruit of thy land; cursed shalt thou be when thou 
comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest 
out. The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto 
thee until He shall have consumed thee from off the 
land whither thou goest to possess it. And thou 
shalt grope at noonday as the blind gropeth in dark- 
ness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways. And 



Divinity of Christ. 139 

thou slialt be only oppressed, and spoiled ever more, 
and no man shall save thee. And thou shalt be- 
come an astonishment — a proverb, and a by-word 
among all the nations whither the Lord shall lead 
thee; and the Lord shall scatter thee among all peo- 
ple from one end of the earth, even to the other, 
and among these nations shalt thou find no ease — 
neither shall the soul of thy foot find rest, but the 
Lord shall give thee these, a trembling heart, a fail- 
ing of eyes, and sorrow of mind; and thy life shall 
hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear, day 
and night, and shall have none assurance of thy life. 
In the morning thou shalt say, would God it were 
even, and in the evening thou shalt say, would God 
it were morning." This being written by Moses, 
we know that it was written before the children of 
Israel — the Jews about whom Moses was speaking — 
had entered the promised land. How could Moses 
have known the history, the destiny of this people, 
when it all lay deep hidden in the womb of time? 
Every intelligent being is bound to admit that noth- 
ing short of the mighty God could have known these 
things, and that He must have communicated them 
to Moses. Now, if in searching this Old Testament, 
we shall find that not only has the history of the 
Jews been foretold with perfect accuracy, but that 
we have the birth, life and death of Jesus Christ 
foretold with equal accuracy — all the prominent 
things connected with Him, and all foretold by men 
of God — the Prophets from 487 to 400 years before. 
His birth, what will you then say of His divinity \ 



140 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith 

» 

HEAR WHAT THE PROPHETS SAY. 

One of them tells us, 4000 years before his birth, 
that He would be born; 1921 years, the nation, tribe 
and family He would descend from; 1689, the time 
when he would be born; 1452, the place he would be 
born; 698, that he would be worshiped by the wise 
men; 606, that there would be a massacre at Bethle- 
hem; 740, that he would be carried into Egypt; 713, 
that He would be known by the descent of the Holy 
Spirit upon Him — that he would work miracles — 
that He would cast the buyers and sellers out of the 
temple; 712, that He would be hated and persecuted; 
1000, that the Gentiles and Jews would conspire to 
destroy Him; 518, that He would ride triumphantly 
into Jerusalem; 487, that He would be sold for thirty 
pieces of silver; 1000, that He would be betrayed by 
one of His own familiar friends; 485, that His disci- 
ples would forsake Him; 1000, that He would be ac- 
cused by false witnesses; 712, that He would not 
plead upon His trial; 1000, that He would be buf- 
feted, insulted and spit upon; 700, that He would be 
scourged; 1000, that He would be crucified; that they 
would offer Him gall and vinegar to drink; that they 
would part His garments, and cast lots for His vest- 
ure; that He would be mocked by His enemies; 487, 
that His hands, feet and sides would be pierced; 700, 
that He would be patient under His sufferings; 1000, 
that He would pray for His enemies; 713, that He 
would die with malefactors; 500, that there would be 
.an earthquake, and remarkable darkness at His death; 



Divinity of Christ. 141 

700, that He would be buried with the rich; 780, that 
He would arise from the dead; 1000 that His be- 
trayer would die suddenly and miserably. 

BORN OF A VIRGIN. 

By three different Prophets — by one 4000 years 
before His birth; by one 712, and by another 606, it 
was foretold that He should be born of a virgin. 
Now, add to all this the prophesy of Jesus about the 
Jews. Just before His crucifixion He said : ' « They 
shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be 
led away captive into all nations; and Jerusalem 
shall be trodden down by the Gentiles until the 
times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." Now, is it not 
a fact that within less than forty years after he said 
this that the prophesy was fulfilled to the letter? Is 
it not a fact that they have been thus scattered 
among the nations and tribes of the earth for more 
than 1800 years, and that they are so scattered at 
this moment ? These are stubborn facts, which no 
intelligent man or woman will attempt to deny, and, 
being beyond refutation, will establish the divinity 
of Christ beyond the shadow of a doubt, for no mor- 
tal man could write the future history of a nation of 
people, with perfect exactness and precision, for 
more than 1800 years. Leaving all other points I 
have established, this alone establishes the fact that 
Christ is all that he claimed to be, THE SON OF 
GOD, THE SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD. 



142 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

SECOND COMING. 

Christ has told us that the Jews would remain in 
this scattered condition until the times of the Gen- 
tiles be fulfilled, at which time they shall be gath- 
ered to the land God gave them, and He shall come 
and reign over them. ' ' fie whose right it is to 
reign " shall come in clouds and great glory. Then 
shall every eye behold him, and they also who 
pierced Him, and they shall mourn for Him as one 
mourneth for his only son. 







J. B. MOODY, D.D. 



CHAPTER VII. 
ELD. JOSEPH B. MOODY, D.D. 

J. B. Moody was born June 24, 1838, in Clarks- 
-ville, Va. His early life was spent in Virginia and 
Kentucky. He was educated at Bethel College, 
Russellville, Ky., and entered the ministry Septem- 
ber 17, 1876. Thus it will be seen that he was 
thirty-eight years of age when he began preaching, 
but he has developed into one of the strongest men, 
and is one of the greatest preachers and ablest de- 
baters that has ever lived. He is indeed a pillar of 
orthodoxy. 

He has been a successful pastor and evangelist. 
He has been pastor of Pewee Valley, LaGrange, 
Owenton, Paducah and other churches in Kentucky, 
and of Trezevant, Martin and some smaller churches 
in Tennessee. He was supply for the Central church, 
Memphis, for six months. He also served churches 
in Hot Springs, Ark., San Antonio, Texas, and 
Tampa, Florida. He is now again serving the 
church at Hot Springs, Ark. These churches have 
prospered under his ministry, being built up in the 
faith and strengthened for the discharge of duty. 

His strong denunciation of sin has often caused 
the churches to withdraw from the disorderly. His 
manner of preaching is such that it is well-nigh im- 
possible for ease-loving sinners to remain long under 

(143) 



144 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith 

his preaching without either being converted or 
driven away. His preaching is direct, doctrinal, 
pointed and practical. 

Dr. Moody's evangelistic work has been noted for 
its thoroughness. The immediate results have never 
been great, but his work is always solid. There 
have been numerous conversions in his meetings, 
but the immediate results have been less than what 
would be seen in the months and years following. 

He assisted Eld. R. W. Mahan in a protracted 
meeting at Liberty church, Graves county, Ky., and 
preached for two weeks without there being a single 
convert. The preachers and the church were very 
much disappointed and discouraged. However, 
Bro. Mahan relates that for eight years thereafter 
there were frequent conversions as the result of 
Moody's preaching. Bro. Mahan thinks it was the 
best meeting ever held in that church. Yet there 
were no visible immediate results. For eight years 
there were people converted who dated their convic- 
tion for sin back to Moody's meeting. Was it a 
failure ? It was a fulfilling of the Lord's promise 
that his word should not return unto him void. 
That meeting was an extreme illustration of the 
general character of his work. Eternity alone shall 
reveal the real life work of J. B. Moody. 

As a debater Dr. Moody has few equals. He has 
met in public debate Guilford Jones, Methodist; 
Bedinger, Presbyterian; Drs. Brents, Briney, J. A. 
Harding, D. Lipscomb, J. S. Sweeney, S. Lucas 
and Morgan Morgans, Campbell ites. His last de- 



Eld. Joseph B. Moody, D.D. 145 

bate with Mr. Harding has been published in a book 
of about six hundred pages. There are very few 
men who would now willingly meet J. B. Moody in 
debate. His logic is invincible and he is perfectly 
at home in the Scriptures. 

He has written several books which have reached 
a large circulation. Notably his little book on 
' ' The Name Christian, " which has reached a circu- 
lation of twenty-five thousand. For four years he 
was co-editor of the Baptist Gleaner with J. N. Hall. 
For three years he was co-editor with J. R. Graves 
of The Baptist, Memphis, Tenn. , and for a short 
time he was associate with E. E. Folk on the Bap- 
tist and Reflector, of Nashville, Tenn. He has been 
one of the directors of the Baptist Book Concern, 
of Louisville, Ky. His books and newspaper arti- 
cles are always read because of the clear and strong 
presentation of whatever subject he may be discuss- 
ing. A characteristic essay of his is published at 
the close of this sketch on the " Conditions of Re- 
ceiving the Holy Spirit for Service." 

He is now sixty-one years old, but he is growing- 
stronger as a preacher and writer as he grows older. 
He is good for at least fifteen years effective service 
yet. Such a man as he never grows old in mind. 
His body may decay, but his mind will continue to 
renew its youth and grow stronger with the years. 

Bethel College, Russellville, Ky., did itself the 
honor of conferring on him the title of Doctor of 
Divinity, June, 1892. 

He has "in all things showed himself a pattern 
10 ' 



146 



Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 



of good works : in doctrine showing uncorruptness, 
gravity, sincerity, sound speech, that cannot be con- 
demned; that he that is of the contrary part may be 
ashamed." Titus 2:7-8. 



CONDITIONS OF RECEIVING THE HOLY 
SPIRIT FOR SERVICE. 

BY J. B. MOODY, D. D. 

I will use the term condition, in its primary sense, 
as denoting the states of mind and heart in which we 
receive the Holy Spirit, rather than works to be per- 
formed by which we procure the Holy Spirit. Like 
the Son, the Holy Spirit is himself a gift, and all 
the qualifications he bestows are also gifts; and, 
more, they are free gifts, not bought with money, 
nor the merit of human performances. True, he is 
promised to them that ask, but asking is not the con- 
dition. He is not given because we ask, or in con- 
sideration of the asking, for our part of the asking is 
nothing if not characterized by spiritual qualities be- 
yond our capacity. Asking must be the expression 
of those states of mind and heart which are well 
pleasing to God, and which we will now consider. 
Of ourselves we can't ask for the Holy Spirit or any- 
thing else "as we ought." For a solution of this 
mystery we appeal to the New Covenant, by which 
God purposes to prepare a people for his service by 
cleansing them from sin; by giving them new hearts 
and right spirits; by giving them the indwelling 
Holy Spirit so as to cause them to walk in his stat- 
utes and keep his ordinances, which becomes our 
reasonable service. Thus, a people is prepared of 

(147) 



148 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith 

God, "zealous of good works.'' The mission of 
these children of God is like that of their Elder 
Brother — " to do the will of God. v "Kesisting," 
"quenching" and "grieving" the Holy Spirit do 
not properly belong to my subject, as the first is be- 
fore, and the others after, receiving the Holy Spirit 
for service. Then, first, a condition of receiving 
the Holy Spirit for service is not simply a desire 
for service, but a desire that the service shall be ac- 
cording to the will of God. In other words, a de- 
sire "to do the will of God from the heart." For 
this purpose the Holy Spirit was sent, and for this 
he must be sought. By him the Bible was inspired ;. 
by him we are regenerated and illuminated, and all 
to secure our obedience, or service to God. There 
is no direction of the Holy Spirit when our service 
conflicts with the Bible. Any spirit that supplants, 
suppresses or suspends the precepts of God's word 
is an unholy spirit. Consciousness directed by the 
Holy Spirit never substitutes, but always substan- 
tiates the word of God. Our subject is loaded with. 
error on these points. To see the importance of 
desire to do the will of God from the heart, look for 
a moment how the world is evil affected by the zeal 
of a misdirected service — "a zeal for God, but not 
according to knowledge." Being ignorant of God's 
right ways, and maybe seeking the help of the 
Holy Spirit, they go about to establish their own 
supposed right ways, and will not submit to the 
right ways of God. The Bible says much of such 
misdirected service of God. " Not to every one 



Conditions of Receiving the Holy Spirit for Service. 149 

that says, Lord, Lord, or that prophesies in his 
name or in his name casts out devils, and in his 
name does many wonderful works; not every one 
who knocks, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; not 
those who say. Lord, when saw we thee an hun- 
gered or athirst, or a stranger or naked, or sick or 
in prison, and did not minister to thee; not all who 
seek to enter shall be able; not all who call shall be 
heard, or who seek shall find; not those who serve 
by casting motes out of their brother's eye while 
there is a beam in their own; not those who, with a 
good conscience, persecute the church of God, verily 
believing they are doing God's service; not all who 
teach the holy law, and contend with Godly zeal for 
its righteous requirements; not all who have kept 
these commandments from their youth up; not those 
who teach for doctrines the commandments of men; 
not those who seek to profit themselves or to please 
men; not those of whom all men speak well; not all 
who speak with tongues of men and angels, and who 
have the gifts of prophecy, and understand all mys- 
teries and all knowledge, and have all faith so they 
can remove mountains; not every one who bestows 
all his goods to feed the poor and then gives his 
body to be burned; not these, nor those like them, 
of which there are many classes, but only those who 
possess the internal preparation provided in the 
New Covenant, and who seek to perform the duties 
enjoined by the New Covenant. Christ limits it 
thus : "But to those who do the will of my Father 
who is in heaven." Paul's capitulation when ap- 



150 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

prehended was in these words: "Lord, what wilt 
thou have me to do?" He afterward wrote : u Be 
not unwise, but understanding what the will of the 
Lord is." 

The Holy Spirit knows the divine mind and pur- 
poses concerning us, and he will work in us " both 
to will and to do of God's good pleasure," which is 
our service. But if we prefer to walk in our own 
ways and after our own devices it is vain to seek the 
Holy Spirit for such service. When seeking the 
Holy Spirit for service we must not presume to act 
as his counselor to give him understanding. He has 
no infirmities for us to help. We neither know 
what to pray for as we ought, nor what to work for 
as we ought. He must help us in both the matter 
and manner of both prayers and performances. To 
illustrate this error. There is danger in our churches 
seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit in calling a 
pastor; that they seek only his help in securing the 
man of their own choice. True, they must call one 
of their choice, but if their choice is not the fruit of 
the Holy Spirit, his help in securing him as pastor 
is no correction of the mistake. If every member 
should seek the Holy Spirit in the matter of his in- 
dividual choice, then the ballot, if sincerely com- 
mitted to the Lord, would express the Lord's choice, 
and this would be the work of the Holy Spirit. 
Every church should prefer a pastor after God's 
heart and of God's choosing, and the ballot was or- 
dained to do that very thing. If balloting for a. 
pastor is not serving the Lord, then what is % The- 



Conditions of Receiving the Holy Spirit for Service. 151 

Lord knows what is lacking in every field, and who 
will best supply it. He never will send a man to 
please men by speaking smooth things, and to cry 
peace, peace, when there should be no peace, though 
that is the popular demand. He will never send 
one to apologize for popular sins, whether the trans- 
gression of the law of Moses or the commandments 
of Christ, though that is the popular demand. He 
will never send one under whose ministry any class 
of sinners as such can find comfort, nor one of whom 
all will speak well, though that is the popular de- 
mand. Those who take this service into their own 
hands may seem to succeed and have a name to live 
like the Laodicean church, rich and wanting noth- 
ing, while they are spiritually dead. They may 
build, and build, and build, but may be building on 
the sand for the flood, and building of wood, hay 
and stubble for the fire. They seek the guidance of 
the Holy Spirit in doing their will and their way, 
and are willing for the Lord to have his will and his 
way, provided it agrees with their own. There is 
danger of deceiving ourselves and others in this 
matter. 

God does not submit his will to us for our exam- 
ination and approval before we adopt it. His will 
needs none of our examination and approval. We 
are not to accept it on our judgment of it, but on 
the divine right to rule. Paul surrendered to it 
first and then inquired what it was. 

This prepares the way to a deeper insight in the 
consideration of the second important condition of 



152 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith 

receiving the Holy Spirit for service, namely, that 
-we not only desire the will of the Lord in the serv- 
ice, but that we recognize the sovereignty of that 
will. Sovereign in choosing the servants, the serv- 
ice and the gifts for that service. A sovereignty 
uninfluenced by us, and, if need be, contrary to us. 
There is so much more in this than at first appears 
that we must be at some pains to develop it, for this 
lays the ax at the root of all our failures of both 
seeking and serving. He set the member in both 
the natural and spiritual bodies "as it pleased him," 
" dividing to every one severally as he will." Our 
service should be rendered ' < according as he hath 
dealt to every one the measure." "Having then 
gifts differing according to the grace of God." I 
do not say like some that there is no free and sov- 
ereign grace, but I do say there is no other kind of 
grace. Hence even these superlative adjectives are 
superfluous unless used to enlighten the ignorant; 
and for such, if such there be, I say that this diver- 
sity of gifts is according to the free and sovereign 
grace of God. It is this that gives contentment and 
pleasure and glorying in our part of the service. 
He calls unto him whom he will, and sends them 
where he will, and to do what he will; all such walk 
by the Spirit. We may desire the best office, and 
covet the best gifts, but we must be content with the 
service assigned us, and diligently use the gifts be- 
stowed for that service. If we have the gift of 
prophecy we should not despise prophesying, but 
prophesy, and not covet tongues or other gifts sov- 



Conditions of Receiving the Holy Spirit for Service. 153 

^reignly bestowed upon other chosen vessels of 
mere j. Or he that has the gifts for the office of a 
deacon let him exercise them in deaconizing, or he 
that teacheth in teaching, or he that exhorteth in ex- 
hortation, or lie that giveth in simplicity or he that 
leadeth in diligence; and he that showeth mercy in 
cheerfulness, "to every one his own work; "yet we 
are laboring together with God, so that the most 
important members should not think the feeble are 
unnecessary, but give the more abundant honor to 
those who seem to lack. 

The apostles found out by experiment, experience 
and inspiration that ''it was not right for them to 
leave the word of God and serve tables.' 1 So others 
filled with the Holy Spirit were chosen for that par- 
ticular work. The work of these two offices having 
been made thus distinct, the Holy Spirit will not guide 
a preacher in the work of a deacon, nor the deacon, 
as such, in the work of the ministry. This is spoken 
of official work, but the same principle holds good 
in every department of labor. Every one must do 
his own work, using his own gift, which was sover- 
eignly assigned, and therein to be content. 

And here comes the test, the fiery trial that is to 
try us, the cross to be daily taken up, the crucifying 
with Christ, the dying daily, the offering of our- 
selves as living sacrifices, holy, acceptable unto 
God, which is reasonable service. Let us not be 
deceived about this sovereign will of God. We are 
willing for the will of God to be done, and perhaps 
.are willing to do it, but are we willing that that will 



154 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

shall be sovereign ? The antithesis, " Not my will, 
but thine be done," is not a play upon words. If it 
taxed or overtaxed the pleasurable will of Christ 
for God's purposing will to be done in his case, then 
how can our pleasurable wills escape when in con- 
tact with the sovereign will of God's purpose con- 
cerning us \ Is it too much to say at least of begin- 
ners in service that " thy will " always means " not 
my will? " Oh, his ways are not our ways, nor his 
thoughts ours. Hence the language, Deny thy- 
self, • deny thyself, and take up thy cross daily and 
follow me. It may devolve on one to forsake 
father and mother, another to forsake wife and chil- 
dren, another brothers and sisters, another houses 
and lands, another to lay down his own life, another 
all these and all else. If this or that be the will of 
Christ we must do it or we can't be his disciples; not 
that he is contrary to us, but that we are contrary to 
him. So the Holy Spirit must lead us out of our- 
selves, cost what it may, or we are not fit for serv- 
ice. Our flesh and our former conduct in it utterly 
unfit us for the service of God. Now hold, while 
the knife of sacrifice cuts deeper, so as to take out 
the very roots of the evil that hinder acceptable 
service. We are not to forsake all that we have, 
that may be in our way, as a sort of exchange for 
something better. The something better may be 
allowed as an inducement and an encouragement, 
but it must be effectually cut out of the motive of 
our doing. We are not to serve for the loaves and 
fishes. When the apostles left their boats and nets, 



Conditions of Receiving the Holy Spirit for Service. 155 

they never considered for one moment the question 
of loss and gain. Indeed, Christ keeping nothing 
back, said to them after they had left all to follow 
him : " I send you forth as sheep in the midst of 
wolves; they will deliver you up to the councils, and 
will scourge you in their synagogues, and ye shall 
be hated of all men for my name's sake. When 
they persecute you in one city, flee to another. 
What I tell you in darkness speak ye in the light, 
and what ye hear in the ear preach ye upon the 
housetops, and fear not them who can kill the body. 
Think not I am come to send peace on the earth, 
but a sword; and blessed is he whosoever shall not 
be offended in me." Does it not seem from this, 
and especially from what we will further note, that 
" thy will " means "not my will/' or the Spirit wars 
against the flesh '. Our wills would have ordained 
the praise of men and the friendship of the world, 
and would have turned Godliness into gain, as we 
see abundantly verified around and about us. It 
seems now that those follow Christ best who please 
men most and please most men. When Paul said : 
"Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? 7 '' he surren- 
dered his will, and the answer shows that the will 
of Paul was slain. The Lord's will could not pos- 
sibly have been Paul's will, except by adoption, and 
the adoption cost him "the loss of all things." 
"To bear the name of Jesus of Nazareth," full of 
contempt, "far hence unto the Gentiles" "and to 
kings," "and to suffer great things for his name's 
sake," amounted in a very important sense to the 



156 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith 

crucifixion of Paul with the Lord. " Not my will, 
but thine be done." The whole life service in 
which he was called was an unspeakable cross, that 
could not have been borne except by sovereign, 
recreating, sustaining power, working in him, both 
to will and to do of God's good pleasure. Those 
four fiery commands contained in that "heavenly 
call " were uttered, not after Paul had done some 
great thing as the performance of a condition to pro- 
cure the Holy Spirit for a service of his own choos- 
ing, but was after he had given utterance to that 
state of mind and heart which recognized his sover- 
eign Lord, who had sovereignly chosen him for a 
service that was according to the purposes of his 
sovereign grace. Listen! Look! "Lord, what 
wilt thou have me to do ? " Who can say it ? If we 
can say it like Paul said it, every jot and tittle of it, 
and mean it, then the filling of the Holy Spirit for 
service is nigh at hand. 

The offering of Isaac was a work of faith. It 
seemed both immoral and irrational. It was God ; s 
will, not Abraham's. Abraham could not have 
boasted of the binding, the altar, the knife or the 
sacrificing act. Why should God command a man 
to do that which the man desires to do ? The very 
word command bespeaks coercion of some kind. 
God never coerces against the will, yet he exercises 
a holy coercion of the will. 

Gal. 2:S contains Paul's statement of the mystery 
of this mighty inworking power, this recreating 
grace : " For he that wrought effectually in Peter the 



Conditions of Receiving the Holy Spirit for Service. 157 

apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty 
in me toward the Gentiles." The power that 
wrought in Peter and Paul, and must work in us 
if we are ever fitted for any great service, must be 
mighty to be effectual. It will help us in Paul's 
case to look a little at Peter's case. I can't decide 
which had the greater cross in serving, Peter going 
to the circumcision or Paul to the uncircumcision. 
Peter was a castaway from the house of Israel, like 
Moses from Pharoah's house, and to go to such a 
people, recognized as the seed of Abraham, "to 
whom pertained the adoption and the glory of the 
covenants, and the giving of the law, and the prom- 
ises, and the inheritance,'' and unto whose covenant 
Gentiles must be grafted before they could partake 
of the promises; to go to these recognized chosen 
people of God, "who had the advantage much 
every way," chiefly in that, at that time, they 
had the only oracles of God, and of whom Christ 
said: "All therefore whatsoever they bid you ob- 
serve, that observe and do;" whose zeal for God's 
word would lead them to "compass land and sea to 
make one proselyte;" who made long prayers and 
oft repeated them, and who loved to pray, and who 
paid "tithes of mint and annise and cummin;" 
who made clean the outside of the cup platter; 
whose outward righteousness appeared indeed beau- 
tiful to man; who built the tombs of the prophets 
and garnished the sepulchres of the righteous, and' 
who condemned the killing of the prophets by their 
fathers; to go to such people, profuse in their obla- 



158 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

tions and prayers and sacrifices for sins, and tell 
them as he would a Gentile dog to repent, and trust 
upon the name of Jesus of Nazareth for the remis- 
sion of sins; the one, "the Holy One, whom they 
had betrayed, and wicked hands had crucified and 
slain;" knowing, too, that in that service he would 
be hated and persecuted and beaten in their syna- 
gogues, and tried before kings and governors; such 
a service, to such a people, with such experience, 
known beforehand — what was it but another exam- 
ple of saying, " Not my will, but thine be done," 
and shows also in Peter that condition of mind and 
heart which we are here considering, viz. : an entire 
surrender of our will and our way and our all to 
him who deigns to call us into his service ? It was 
this that secured the filling of the Holy Spirit for 
the great service to which Peter was chosen. 

Paul says that the same power that wrought 
effectually in Peter to the circumcision was mighty 
in him toward the Gentiles. Col. 2:29 says: 
"Whereunto I labor, striving according to his 
workings in me mightily." It was Paul's submis- 
sion to the sovereign will of his Lord that was ac- 
companied and followed by that inworking power 
that uprooted his will and ' ' brought every thought 
into captivity to the obedience of Christ." 

In further confirmation that the great service into 
which the Holy Spirit will lead us is necessarily a 
cross-bearing service, to which our hearts and minds 
must yield consent, let us consider briefly the exam- 
ples recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, where it 
is said : "They were filled with the Holy Spirit." 



Conditions of Beceiving the Holy Spirit for Service. 159 

I fear that many who think they desire to be filled 
with the Holy Spirit are seeking happiness rather 
than service, rest rather than labor, pleasure and not 
pain, and if such knew before what service and ex- 
perience they would be called into, that they would 
decline to be filled by the Holy Spirit. Some hav- 
ing cultivated their emotions to excess, are claiming 
to be filled with the Holy Spirit because they feel 
good, and make void the word of God by their tra- 
ditions, and boldly set aside the commandments of 
Christ by their whimsical notions and their capri- 
cious and conflicting consciousness. All such are 
condemned by the light of the following cases, 
which contained nothing of the goody, goody expe- 
rience, the compromising policy nor any of the char- 
acteristics of our modern boastful cases. How faith- 
ful to truth and principle are the words and actions 
-as recorded in these genuine New Testament cases 
of Holy Spirit infilling. Read the faithful words of 
Peter in Acts 2:22-24: and 36-38, with Acts 3:15-19. 
Such fidelity to his orders brought him a night's 
lodging in jail. But the next day being brought to 
trial, Peter, "filled with the Holy Spirit," uttered 
the courageous words recorded in Acts 4:9-12. This 
speech resulted in being " straitly threatened," 
u commanded " and "further threatened," but the 
reply was : "We must serve God rather than man." 
We learn from this that when the service of God 
provokes opposition, antagonism, contention, dispu- 
tation and strife, that we should wax strong and 
quit us like men; that we should put on the whole 



160 Pillars of Chihodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith 

armor of God, that we may be able to stand and to 
withstand, and having done all to stand. When 
filled with the Holy Spirit we will pray as they did 
for boldness to speak as we ought to speak, the very 
words that brought them to prison and to chains. I 
deprecate the puerile and pernicious sentiment mod- 
ernly entertained, that when one is filled with the 
Holy Spirit he will be guided clear of all conten- 
tions and strife ; that the world will fall in love with 
him, and the devil will make peace with him. But 
being filled with the Holy Spirit makes one God- 
like, or Christlike, and as sure as the world hates 
God and his Christ so sure will those filled with the 
Holy Spirit suffer persecution. 

Let me say by way of parenthesis that in apos- 
tolic time, when contentions were most furious, con- 
versions were most numerous; " howbeit many be- 
lieved, and the number of men were about five thou- 
sand," was written as the result of the preachers' 
being in jail. But the contentions were for princi- 
ples, not persons. 

When these threatened and imprisoned servants 
found their courage failing, they reported their 
troubles to their own company. Then they all, 
with one accord, prayed for boldness to speak the 
forbidden word. "And they were all filled with 
the Holy Spirit, and they all spake the [forbidden] 
word of God with boldness." Note, again, how 
men and women act when filled with the Holy 
Spirit. Not doing their own will, but the will of 
him' that sent him. In further rebuke of modern 



Conditions of Beceiving the Holy Spirit for Service. 161 

idiocy on this subject, let me say that these men,, 
like their master, who had the Spirit without meas- 
ure, uniformly, purposely chose controverted truths y 
knowing that thereby they would provoke opposition. 
But what is opposition but opportunity for fidelity 
and Christian manhood ? Are not temptations for 
our resistance, and difficulties for our development, 
and contentions for our courage, and strife for our 
strength, and persecution for our happiness ? Can 
there be victory without battle, success without op- 
position, or life without death ? The curse is for 
the fearful and to "those who draw back," and the 
promise is for the "overcomer," but what is our 
generation of Christians overcoming but their con- 
viction of trutli and duty 1 A man filled with the 
Holy Spirit would act like Peter, and James, and 
John, and Stephen, and Paul, and not one of these 
knows how to apologize to the opposers of truth, 
or to capitulate for a peaceful compromise. 

Following these recorded cases further, we find in 
Acts 5:17 that the opponents of the apostles were 
"filled with indignation," resulting in another im- 
prisonment. But the Lord sent his angel to open 
the prison door and say : " Go, stand in the temple, 
and speak to the people all the words of this life." 
They were arrested again and reminded of their or- 
ders and strictures; but the answer again was: "We 
ought to obey God rather than men." Fortius 
they were beaten and threatened again, but, "daily 
in the temple and in every house, they ceased not to 
teach and preach" the things forbidden by men. 
u 



162 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

In the 6th chapter of Acts we have Stephen 
" filled with the Holy Spirit," and "wisdom," and 
4 'faith," and "power," and "grace," and thus en- 
dued and endowed he disputed with the libertines 
and Syrenians and Alexandrians, and them of Silicia 
and Asia; and these not being able to " resist the 
wisdom and spirit which he spoke, " got furiously 
mad and resorted to meanness and mendacity and 
violence, but the great debater's face shown like the 
face of an angel. The spirit and manner of Stephen 
is clearly seen in the last ten verses of chapter 
seven, where he lost his life as the result of the 
strife. Being filled with the Holy Spirit he boldly 
delivered his message, leaving results with God. 
And so would we do now if filled with the Holy 
Spirit, and strife and loss of life are no evidence to 
the contrary. 

In chapter 9:17-22 we find Saul of Tarsus "filled 
with the Holy Spirit," and "straightway in the 
synagogue he preached that Jesus is the Christ, the 
Son of God." If one should do such a thing in a 
synagogue in these days, knowing, as Saul did, that 
it would give offense and stir up strife, who would 
say that he was filled with the Holy Spirit ? Yet 
that is exactly what one would do if so filled. 
When the strife came, instead of apologizing, "Saul 
increased the more in strength, and confounded the 
Jews, proving that Jesus is the very Christ." "Then 
they took counsel to kill him, but he was let down 
<the wall in a basket." 

These things were written for our example. We 



Conditions of Beceiving the Holy Spirit for Service. 163 

.■are sent to convert everybody to Christ, and then 
-every convert to ' ' all things whatsoever he has 
commanded." So reads the commission of all 
whom Christ sends. Better brook opposition than 
make peace, and compromise and lose all. Paul 
assaulted in season and out of season, and rarely if 
'ever made a failure. With every disputation and 
strife it is recorded that some or many believed, 
some of the priests, some of the chief women, and 
of others not a few. If all Baptist preachers were 
filled with the Holy Spirit, they would be filled with 
the spirit of Christ and of the apostles, and proph- 
ets, and martyrs, and these all had the spirit of con- 
tention, and they strove for the faith of the gospel. 
This would soon turn the world upside down. I in- 
sist, and assert, that men can do thus now and be 
Christian gentlemen, as the apostles and martyrs 
were. To be always and everywhere contending 
earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the 
saints is not porcupinish, nor discourteous, nor aus- 
tere, nor ungentlemanly, nor any of those mean, 
ugly things ascribed to such by this generation. 
Paul was a Christian gentleman, yet he gave place 
by subjection, no not for an hour, not even to those 
recognized as pillars in the church, nor to Peter, 
nor to those without, whether priests, princes or 
potentates. In nothing was he terrified by his ad- 
versaries, but fought a good fight, warred a good 
warfare, kept the faith, all of it, the least as well as 
the greatest of Christ's commandments. If we were 
thus permeated and panoplied and perfected, how 



I 



164 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith 

long would it take to turn the wrongness of the 
world upside down and its rottenness inside out ? 
But we are too afraid of contention. If the arch- 
angel disputed with the devil about the body of 
Moses, ought we not to contend for the living ora- 
cles of God ? What are we but children playing in 
the market places, saying to the opponents of 
Christ's commandments : "We have piped unto you 
and ye have not danced ? " Are we not tickling a 
generation of vipers with straws ? Afraid of con- 
tention ! of strife ! of the face of man and the 
shadow of some ! We invert and pervert the right 
ways of the Lord when we try to be fast peaceable 
and then pure. It is an impracticable and impossi- 
ble policy. The question that confronts every Bap- 
tist in every age is, Shall we have peace and error, 
or strife and truth ? Truth is exotic, and must con- 
quer every inch of its territory, but "tares are sowed 
while men sleep." All the evil that confronts us. 
now, whether within or without, must be met and 
overcome. The victory would redound to God's 
glory, even though we should lawfully strive unto 
blood. God is glorified always and everywhere, 
and his cause advanced by overcoming evil with 
good, not goody. But the evil must be overcome 
and supplanted with good. When wolves entered 
in not sparing the flock, Paul did not salt them, for 
salt is for sheep; but he slew them with the sharp 
two-edged sword of truth. True, the world was 
looking on, but they saw men true and tried con- 
tending for the right against the inside as well as 



Conditions of Beceiving tlie Holy Spirit for Service. 165 

the outside. What a cleaning up and cleaning out 
there would be if we were all filled with the Holy 
Spirit. Indeed, short work and effectual would be 
made of it. We would see that 2 Cor. 6:14-18 was 
written for instruction. 

But the last recorded example we shall notice is 
Acts 13:9-11, where Paul was withstood by Elymas, 
who sought to turn the deputy from the faith. But 
Paul, being filled with the Holy Spirit, set his eyes 
on him and said : "O, full of all subtilty and all 
mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all 
righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the 
right ways of the Lord?" Filled with the Holy 
Spirit and talk that way ? Yes. 

We are allowing the cause to suffer by mistaken 
notions of the effect and fruits of the Holy Spirit's 
filling. There are times to be sweet, and times to 
get sweet and keep sweet, but this is the time to be 
men. The Holy Spirit chooses men, and qualifies 
them for the service of soldiers, good soldiers, to 
war a good warfare, and to fight a good fight, and 
this does not mean to fight the air. Somebody is 
presupposed to be on the other side. Are we not 
sorely in need of men out of whom martyrs could be 
made ? These goody, sweety sentiments become 
children and sweethearts, but they are unmanning 
our men by emasculating their manhood, so that 
some pulpits are calling for feminine men, and some 
for masculine women. These things ought not so 
to be. 

Now, in conclusion. Who is willing and ready, 



166 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

with the conditions of mind and heart now consid- 
ered, first, do we desire to do the will of the Lord 
from the heart ? And, second, do we desire to do 
the will of the Lord from the heart, when that will 
is sovereign, even antagonistic, in everything to our 
own will, so that nothing we have is ours, not even 
our wills, but every desire, and thought, and pur- 
pose, and aim shall be his, brought into subjection 
to him, at all times and in all things, so that,, 
''through floods and flames, if Jesus leads, we'll 
follow where he goes;" so that, though bonds and 
imprisonment await us, we care not; come weal, 
come woe, come life, come death, we are his and 
his forever, keeping back nothing, but offering our- 
selves wholly for his service, and that service to be 
sovereignly assigned us ? 

Who is ready with these two conditions ? Verily, 
he shall be accepted, and prepared, and used by the 
Holy Spirit in the service of Christ. When all shall 
have done this, then the kingdoms of this world 
shall soon become the kingdom of our Lord and of 
his Christ, and his will will be done on earth, even 
as it is in heaven. For which let us continue to work 
and pray as our Lord instructed us, never forgetting 
that it is no prayer at all unless we include our- 
selves in doing that will on earth as angels do it in 
heaven. If it becomes us to pray thus, it becomes 
us to do thus. It was none of self and all of thee 
when we sought the Lord; let it be so when we serve 
the Lord. But all of self and none of thee, or some 
of self and some of thee, or less of self and more of 



Conditions of Receiving the Holy Spirit for Service. 167 

thee, does not fulfill the conditions. It must be 
none of self and all of thee. 

Now a word to encourage this sacrifice of self. 
If God can best rule the world sovereignly, that is 
without taking counsel with men, cannot he better 
rule our individual lives thus ? And if to use us 
he must undo us and outdo us, so mote it be. Jesus 
said : "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground 
and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth 
forth much fruit." His application of this is in the 
next verse. " He that loveth his life shall lose it, 
and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it 
unto life eternal." "If any man serve me let him 
follow me, and him will my Father honor." John 
12:2-±-2G. This law of life, out of death in nature, 
is projected into the kingdom of grace. Service 
comes with sacrifice. The wood of the forest is for 
the service of man, but it must be sacrificed. Man 
must do unto it as he will or it is fit for neither 
lumber nor fuel. Even fruit-bearing is the sacrifi- 
cial service of the wood, and the fruit is no service 
till sacrificed. Coal is for service, but the service 
comes out of the sacrifice. Out of its reduction to 
ashes comes the heat, and out of the sacrifice of oil 
comes light, and out of the sacrifice of animal flesh 
comes human life. Even the burden-bearing ani- 
mals render a sacrificial service. If vegetable life 
rises to the higher order of animal life it must be 
sacrificed. If flowers are useful it is because they 
are missionary in sending out their fragrance for the 
service of man. It is a poor service without sacri- 



168 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith 

fice. The values of different products, and different 
qualities of the same product, are reckoned from 
sacrifice. "16 to 1," the relative values of gold 
and silver, refer to the amount of sacrifice required 
in their production. 

The same principle holds in the service that man 
renders to God. If Abraham was to be the father 
of the faithful, and the friend of God, he must leave 
his country and his kin and go into a country that 
lie knew not of, and there dwell in tents, and be 
driven by famine into Egypt, and there for a time 
lose his wife. But since against hope he believed 
in hope, he was permitted to come forth with great 
substance. And being not weak in faith, and con- 
sidering his own body dead, and the deadness of 
Sarah's womb, he staggered not at the promise of 
God through unbelief, but judging him faithful who 
had promised, in due time Isaac was born. And 
now, if in Isaac the seed is to be called, let Isaac 
be offered in sacrifice on the altar. 

The greatest man from Adam to Christ was he 
who refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's 
daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with 
the down-trodden people of God. The man who 
did more for the world than perhaps all the genera- 
tions of men from Adam to Christ was the man who 
sacrificed the pleasures of sin in a king's house and 
esteemed the reproach of Christ greater than the 
riches of Egypt. " By faith he forsook Egypt, not 
fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as 
seeing him who is invisible." 



Conditions of Beceiving the Holy Spirit for Service. 169 

If the apostles would receive an hundredfold in 
this life, and in the age to come, thrones and crowns 
of honor, let them forsake ail they have for Christ. 
The man who has done and is doing more for the 
world than perhaps all men from Christ till now, 
was the man who was " more abundant in labors, in 
stripes, in imprisonments, in deaths, in journeyings, 
in perils, in weariness, in painfulness, in watch- 
ings, in hunger and thirst, in fastings, in cold and 
nakedness, and in the care of all the churches." 
The man who profited more than his equals in the 
Jewish religion, and who had more to glory of in 
the flesh than any of the boasters, blameless right- 
eousness in the law, must count the things that were 
gained him loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless he 
counted all things loss for the excellency of the 
knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord, for when he 
suffered the loss of all things, and counted them but 
dung, it was that he might win Christ. When the 
searchlight of eternity shall fall on the pages of his- 
tory so as to bring to light all hidden things, then 
will we be surprised, not at the abundant fruits of 
Paul's labors, but the surpassing abundance over 
and above all we had ever known or thought. 

The woman who has done more to encourage and 
stimulate beneficence in the cause of Christ than all 
others was the woman who cast in the two mites, 
which was all her living, into the treasury of the 
Lord. What would Christ be to us or to the world 
if he had not died — if he had not sacrificed himself ? 
And what can we be to Christ if we do not die to 



1 70 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

the world and to self — die daily a living sacrifice, 
willing, holy and acceptable unto God? Let us 
yield ourselves with these conditions of mind and 
heart, and God fill us with his Holy Spirit for serv- 
ice, and what a service that would be. 

I believe that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is 
past, but I believe we may and ought to be filled 
with the Holy Spirit. We no longer need tongues 
and miracles and signs to confirm the word and to 
credit the divine mission of Christ and the church, 
but we do need the comfort and help of the Spirit. 
We all ought to live in the Spirit and to walk by the 
Spirit, and to be filled with the Spirit. How barren 
is our preaching and how fruitless our labor. Peter,. 
filled with the Holy Spirit, preached one sermon, 
and three thousand of the saved were added to the 
church, and again five thousand men besides women. 
But now, with all our natural and educational ad- 
vantages, it sometimes takes three thousand ser- 
mons to add one soul to the church. Without the 
Spirit we can add many of the unsaved to the 
church to the great detriment of the individual and 
the church and the cause. It is this class that do not 
sacrifice to serve God. If the weather is good and 
the preacher flowery and funny and the fashions are 
to be displayed, on Easter or a May day, they go; 
they go, not for sacrifice, but for show. But if 
there is to be a sacrifice, if the weather is to be 
brooked, if money is to be paid, if prayers are to be 
offered, if principle is to be maintained, if danger is 
to be encountered, if there is to be sacrifice, they all 



Conditions of Receiving the Holy Spirit for Service. 171 

with one consent begin to make excuse. Some sac- 
rifice nothing, some sacrifice little, some sacrifice 
more, but who, oh who, is willing to sacrifice self 
and all else for him who sacrificed all for us ? 

Let us lay all on the altar of sacrifice. He may 
not in every case require it. He may say, as in the 
case of Isaac, It is enough, and return it. But if he 
accept it all, so much the better for us. As we 
sow in this field, which is the world, so will we 
gather in the world to come. Seed sowed is seed 
sacrificed. If we sow sparingly we shall reap 
sparingly, if we sow (sacrifice) bountifully we shall 
also reap bountifully. No sacrifice, no reward, and 
sacrifice, the measure of reward, is written in the 
blood of the lamb. The silly saint who seeks to 
shun sacrifice is a self-destroyer. The spiritual in- 
scription on every altar is: "Give and it shall be 
given unto you. Good measure, heaped up, pressed 
down, shaken together and running over shall be 
given into your bosoms," and the payments are 
promised both in this life and also in the life .to 
come. "1 beseech you, brethren, by the mercies 
of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, 
holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable 
service," and thus "prove what is that good and 
acceptable and perfect will of God." 



CHAPTER VIII. 
ELD. T. T. EATON, D.D., LL.D. 

T. T. Eaton was born in Murfreesboro, Tenn., 
Nov. 16, 1845. His father, Joseph H. Eaton, 
LL.D., was a preacher and educator, and was, for 
a time, pastor in Murfreesboro, Tenn., and Pres- 
ident of Union University, and it is to him that the 
honor of founding the University is due. 

T. T. Eaton was educated in Union University, 
and afterward studied at Madison University, New 
York, and at Washington College, Lexington, Vir- 
ginia. He is a ripe scholar, and is one of the very 
few men to whom Dr. John A. Broad us went for 
advice. 

He has been pastor at Lebanon, Chattanooga and 
Murfreesboro, Tenn. ; Petersburg, Virginia, and for 
nineteen years he has been pastor of Walnut-street 
church, Louisville, Ky. His success in Louisville 
has been extraordinary. 

During his present pastorate not less than fifteen 
hundred have been given letters by Walnut-street 
church, to go into the organization of other churches. 
Seven hundred were granted letters in one day to 
go into the organization of the Twenty-second and 
Walnut-street church, Louisville. This church, lo- 
cated eighteen blocks away, on the same street as 
the mother church, has grown into a great church, 

(172) 




T. T. EATON, D.D., LL.D. 



Eld. T. T. Eaton, D.D., LL.D. 173 

with perhaps the largest congregation of any church 
in the city. The Third-avenue and McFerran Me- 
morial churches went out from Walnut-street, and 
are now strong churches of several hundred mem- 
bers. Other new churches have drawn heavily on 
the Walnut-street membership. Notwithstanding 
this enormous decrease in membership, and not- 
withstanding the fact that there were less than 
seven hundred members when the present pastorate 
began, there are now seventeen hundred members. 
A little study of these figures will give some idea of 
the great work which has been done at Walnut- 
street. 

The great work accomplished in this church is an- 
other proof of the value of long pastorates. No 
man, who is capable of efficient service, can accom- 
plish much in two or three years. 

For five years Dr. Eaton taught in Union Univer- 
sity (1867-1872). For the work of teaching he is 
eminently fitted, but it would have been a pity for 
such a life to have been spent in the school room. 
His work as teacher, however, enabled him to be- 
come a finished scholar, and that has greatly helped 
him in meeting the polite heresies which he has had 
to fight in recent years. 

Dr. Eaton is a ready, rapid speaker. He drives 
right at the point, and can make a speech in five 
minutes when it would take another man a half hour 
to say the same thing. He has been known to 
arise in the associations and conventions which he 
frequently attends, and make a telling speech be- 



174 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

fore the Moderator could declare him out of order. 
Having said what he wanted to say it didn't mat- 
ter if he did have to sit down. 

He is a strong, pungent writer. He has written 
several books, such as " The Angels/' "Talks on 
Getting Married," "Talks to Children," "Faith of 
the Baptists," "Conscience in Missions," etc. He 
has been editor of the 'Western Recorder for twelve 
years. This is one of the greatest Baptist papers 
in the world, and its influence is felt throughout all 
the Southern States, and it is a paper that must be 
reckoned with in any denominational movement. 
Dr. Eaton has given the paper its strength. 

Since the death of J. R. Graves there has been no 
abler defender of orthodoxy. It was to Dr. Eaton 
that all the South looked for defense when Whit- 
sittism had unsettled everything. It was Dr. Eaton 
more than any other man who forced Wm. H. 
Whitsitt to resign his position in the Southern Bap- 
tist Theological Seminary. It is true that such men 
as J. T. Christian, J. S. Coleman, J. N. Hall and 
others contributed largely to the great controversy. 
S. H. Ford, the historian and scholar, also wrote 
strong, forceful articles on Whitsitt's vagaries, but 
it was Dr. Eaton that Dr. Whitsitt feared, and it 
was he that waged the war that resulted in victory 
for the orthodox Baptists of the South. Thank God, 
he is yet a young man (54 years old), and is proba- 
bly good for twenty-five years of service, and ortho- 
doxy may be sure of a pillar while he lives. 

Dr. Eaton is a popular lecturer of no mean repu- 



Eld. T. T. Eaton, D.D., LL.D. 175 

tation. He has delivered lectures on such topics as 
' ' Poor Kin, " " Women As They Are" ' ' Egotism" 
" Ideals '," u Study of 'the Classics ," "Observations 
Abroad," etc. Large audiences greet him wherever 
he goes. 

He has traveled extensively in America, Europe, 
Asia and Africa. His quick eye saw things for 
itself, and his observations, which he has published 
in the Western Recorder, and which he gives in his 
lecture on u Observations Abroad" are not such as 
are copied from guide books, as the weary public 
is so often afflicted with, but bright, fresh, original 
descriptions of what he saw for himself. 

He received the title of D.D. from the Washing- 
ton and Lee University in 1878, and that of LL.D. 
from Southwestern Baptist University in 1880. 

A specimen of his writing is given at the close of 
this sketch. It is perhaps the best short presenta- 
tion of the subject of Baptism that has ever been 
published. We also publish an editorial from the 
Western Recorder in defense of the Philadelphia 
Confession of Faith. 



WHAT IS BAPTISM? 

BY T. T. EATON. 

Baptists affirm that New Testament baptism is the 
immersion in water in the name of the Trinity of a 
believer on a profession of his faith by one duly set 
apart by a church for such service. Other denomi- 
nations, while admitting this to be baptism, hold 
that sprinkling or pouring water upon a person is 
also valid baptism. But since all admit that the 
immersion is right, and many insist that sprinkling 
and pouring are wrong, why cannot all agree to take 
the immersion ? Why be willing to be doubtful 
when you can be certain ? Baptists are not trying 
to force on others a baptism they repudiate; but 
others are trying to force on us a baptism we repu- 
diate, and often we are roundly denounced as "nar- 
row " and "bigoted" for objecting to this. We 
simply ask other denominations to practice what 
they themselves admit to be valid baptism. This 
does not involve any surrender of conscience on 
their part; while for us to accept sprinkling and 
pouring would require a surrender of our con- 
sciences. Let no one say, therefore, that, at least 
so far as the matter of baptism is concerned, Bap- 
tists stand in the way of Christian union. 

What is the proper act of baptism is to be deter- 
mined by an appeal to Scripture. We must of 

(176) 



What is Baptism? 177 

course appeal to tnat part of the Bible which dis- 
cusses the subject, and hence we come to the New 
Testament, since the Old Testament has nothing 
whatever to say on the subject. Passages of the 
Old Testament have, however, been cited in the 
baptismal controversy, one of which we mention.. 
Is. lii. 14:, 15 : "As many were astonished at thee;, 
(his visage was so marred more than any man, and 
his form more than the sons of men:) so shall he 
sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their 
mouths at him : for that which had not been told 
them shall they see; and that which they had not 
heard shall they consider. "' It is claimed that this 
sprinkling is a prophecy of baptism, which is to be 
by sprinkling. Now I admit that if it had been 
proved that sprinkling was baptism then it might be 
argued with some plausibility that there was a 
prophecy of baptism in Old Testament passages 
which speak of sprinkling; but certainly this cannot 
be urged as proof that sprinkling is baptism. But 
the contention vanishes into thinnest air when the 
passage is studied, and it is seen that the word 
sprinkle is a mistranslation, marring the sense of 
the language. It should be astonish or startle, and 
it is so translated in the margin of the Revised Ver- 
sion. The Hebrew word {ixazaK) is rendered in this 
passage by Gesenius : " So shall he cause many na- 
tions to rejoice in himself; " by Davies : "So shall 
he startle (or surprise) many nations." These two 
Hebrew lexicographers give as the first meanings 
of the word (Davies), "to hound, to spring, of liquid 

12 



178 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

to spurt, Hiph. to cause to leap for strong feeling, to 
make to start," and this passage in Isaiah is then 
cited. (Gesenius), "to leap for joy, to exult, to 
spring. The primary idea is that of sparkling, 

flying out Hiph. to cause to leap for joy, to 

cause to exult, to make to rejoice," and then follows 
the translation above given of this passage. The 
Septuagint version (made by seventy learned Jews 
in the time of the Ptolemies and used in Palestine 
in the time of Christ, translates nazah by the Greek 
Oao/jid^a), rendering the passage "odtio dau;xd<7ovrai lOvy 
noXXa in aura)." " So shall many nations be aston- 
ished at him." And this becomes even plainer 
when we examine the passage in English, ' ' As many 
were astonished at thee, (his visage was so marred 
more than any man and his form more than the 
sons of men " — an astonishing thing — " so shall he 
astonish many nations : the kings shall shut their 
mouths at him," — in wonder — "for that which had 
not been told them shall they see; and that which 
they had not heard shall they consider." Thus the 
passage is made clear and intelligible, while by 
using the word "sprinkle" the meaning is ob- 
scured. 

But the Old Testament has nothing whatever to 
say on the subject of baptism, and so we come to 
the New. Baptism began with John the Baptist, 
who was sent by God to preach and to baptize. We 
read, Mark i. 4, 5, " John did baptize in the wilder- 
ness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the 
remission of sins. And there went out unto him all 



What is Baptism? 179 

the land of Judea, and they of Jerusalem, and were 
all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confess- 
ing their sins." Now the act performed by John is 
expressed in the word Anglicized into baptize, the 
Greek verb pa-riXiu. Let us see what this word 
means in this passage. It is an admitted principle 
of language that the meaning of a word may be sub- 
stituted for the word in a sentence without at all 
changing the sense. Let us apply this principle 
here. There are three English words claimed as 
translations of paicriZto in this passage, viz., sprinkle, 
jpour, and immerse. Let us substitute each of these 
in the passage and note the results. "And there 
went out unto him all the land of Judea, and they 
•of Jerusalem, and were all sprinkled of him in the 
river of Jordan, confessing their sins." How could 
a man sprinkle people in a river ? He might throw 
them in or drive them in, but the only way he could 
sprinkle them in would be first to reduce them to a 
liquid or powder. We see that sprinkle in this pas- 
sage does not make sense, and therefore it is not ad- 
missible to translate fio-TiZw by sprinkle here. Try 
pour. "And there went out unto him all the land 
of Judea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all poured 
of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins." 
This is no better. John could not have poured the 
people in the river without first reducing them to a 
powder or a liquid. To talk about pouring people 
in a river is nonsense. And since the sense of the 
passage is destroyed by the use of the ^oy^l pour, it 
is manifest that {iar^i^oi does not here mean pour. 



180 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

Now try immerse. " And there went out unto him 
all the land of Judea, and they of Jerusalem, and 
were all immersed of him in the river of Jordan, 
confessing their sins." This certainly makes sense. 
Preachers do often immerse people in a river. I 
have done it many times myself. Therefore as be- 
tween the three translations, sprinkle, pour and im- 
merse, in this passage, immerse alone can be taken, 
because it, alone of the three, makes sense. 

When men wisli to determine the meaning of a 
word in any language they first turn to standard lex- 
icons of that language and see what definitions are 
given, and these are applied to the passages in ques- 
tion. I might give the translations of any number 
of lexicons, but two will suffice; and since neither of 
these was prepared by a Baptist, neither can be sus- 
pected of any partiality for Baptist views. The 
standard Greek lexicon at all universities and col- 
leges among English-speaking people is Liddell and 
Scott's, seventh edition. This lexicon gives the 
meaning of iSa-rc^w as simply "to dip in or under 
water." It gives as a secondary meaning, u to draw 
wine by dipping." There is no hint of sprinkling 
or pouring. At the University of Virginia, at Har- 
vard, at Yale, at Cornell, at Princeton, at Vander- 
bilt, etc., etc., Liddell and Scott is the standard 
Greek lexicon. Would it not be a marvel if Messrs. 
Liddell and Scott were ignorant of the meaning of 
paTtriZui ? The other lexicon I mention is Prof. 
Thayer's, based on Grimm's Wilke's German work. 
This lexicon is the standard in all the theological 



What is Baptism ? 181 

seminaries of all th« denominations and is a lexicon 
of the Greek used in the New Testament. This 
gives as meanings of fianTtZw, " to dip repeatedly, to 
immerge, to submerge." A secondary meaning is 
given, " to cleanse by dipping or submerging," etc. , 
and also, "to overwhelm." But this lexicon gives 
the following comment under this word: "In the 
New Testament it is used particularly of the rite of 
sacred ablution, first instituted by John the Baptist, 
afterward by Christ's command received by Chris- 
tians and adjusted to the nature and contents of 
their religion (see jSd-rtfffia, 3), viz. , an immersion in 
water, performed as a sign of the removal of sin, 
and administered to those who, impelled by a desire 
for salvation, sought admission to the benefits of 
Messiah's kingdom." To the ^d-rtaiia (of which 
baptism is the Anglicized form), this lexicon gives 
only two meanings, "immersion, submersion," and 
under this word defines Christian baptism : as, 
"according to the view of the apostles, a rite of 
sacred immersion, commanded by Christ." 

Now if i3a-r{*w, the word chosen by the Holy 
Spirit to describe the act of baptism, has any such 
meanings as sprinkle and pour, is it not passing 
strange that these standard lexicographers never 
heard of it ? They are not Baptists, and cannot be 
charged with any partiality for Baptist ideas; and we 
have seen what they say. Can it be they are mis- 
taken ? Could anything have deceived them in this 
matter ? Why are their lexicons used as standards 
by scholars of all denominations '( Either these lex- 



182 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

icographers were ignorant of the meaning of /SarWCw, 
or else John the Baptist immersed the people of 
Judea in the river of Jordan, and our Lord was im- 
mersed. What Jesus Himself did for baptism He 
certainly meant for His disciples to do when He 
commanded them to be baptized; for else He 
preached one thing and practiced another. It is 
blasphemy to say that the preaching and practice of 
Christ were different. 

The references to baptism in the New Testament 
ail fit the idea of immersion, and do not fit the no- 
tions of sprinkling and pouring. In Mark vii.4, 
the word rendered "wash" is panzc^a, and the 
meaning is plain. Mark, writing primarily for the 
Romans, stops to explain the absurd lengths to 
which the Pharisees carried their cleansings. " For 
the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash 
(oi<l>a>vTai) their hands diligently, '' — the Greek is, 
with the fist — "eat not, holding the tradition of the 
elders : and when they come from the market-place, 
except they wash (p<nzTl<sw;nu^ themselves, they eat 
not : and many other things there be, which they 
have received to hold, washings [pa-THTfibos) of cups, 
and pots, and brazen vessels." w. 3 and 4. Now 
there would have been no point in Mark's stopping 
to explain that the Pharisees went to the great 
length of sprinkling or pouring water upon them- 
selves on returning from market, when they while at 
home washed diligently, or " with the fist, " before 
eating. That they would go to the length of im- 
mersing themselves on returning from market, 



What is Baptism ? 183 

where Gentiles had touched them, was a remarka- 
ble thing and worth explaining to the Romans, who 
did not know the customs of the Pharisees and strict 
Jews. Meyer, in loco, says: "In this case sav pi} 
paTZTiffuivrai is not to be understood of loashing the 
hands, but of immersion, which the word in classic 
Greek and in the New Testament everywhere de- 
notes, i. e., in this case, according to the context to 
take a bath. Having come from market, where 
they may have contracted pollution through contact 
with the crowd, they eat not, without having first 
bathed." Italics his. 

As for the immersing of "cups, and pots, and' 
brazen vessels," that was simply carrying out the 
ceremonial law, given in Leviticus xi. 32 : "And 
upon whatsoever any of them, when they are dead, 
doth fall, it shall be unclean; whether it be any ves- 
sel of wood, or raiment, or skin, or sack, whatso- 
ever vessel it be, wherewith any work is done, it 
must be put into water, and it shall be unclean until 
the even; then shall it be clean.' 1 The cups and 
pots were of wood, and these with the brazen ves- 
sels w T ere to be immersed for cleansing, when they 
became ceremonially unclean, while earthen vessels 
were to be broken. The word rendered k ' tables " 
in the common version (x/^a»v) does not belong to the 
true text and the revisers have very properly omit- 
ted it. 

It is an interesting and significant fact that in 
after years, copyists, not understanding the cus- 
toms of the Pharisees, came to this passage, and 



184 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

thought the word fianzi'io must be a mistake, since it 
seemed out of the question that Pharisees should 
actually immerse themselves when they come from 
market. So these copyists ventured to strike out 
fia--i*w and insert pavri^a> i which means to sprinkle. 
They never suspected fiaitri^u} could mean sprinkle 
or pour, or they would not have made the substitu- 
tion. 

It is written in John iii.23, "And John also was 
baptizing in JEnon near to Salim, because there was 
much water there : and they came, and were bap- 
tized." It is said that the "much water" here 
consisted of many springs, needed for camping pur- 
poses by the multitudes who followed John; but had 
this been true the passage would have read that 
"they were encamped in ^Enon near to Salim, be- 
cause there was much water there;" but when it is 
stated, "John was baptizing in ^Enon near to 
Salim, because there was much water there," it is 
evident that the much water was needed for the 
baptizing. 

Turning to Acts i.5, we find a figurative use of 
j3a-T(Za>: " For John indeed baptized with water; but 
ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many 
days hence." I note in passing that instead of 
" with water " and " with the Holy Ghost " in this 
and all other passages, where these expressions fol- 
low "baptize" in the New Testament, the transla- 
tion should be " in water " and "in the Holy 
Ghost." The Greek is lv, and is the word from 
which the English in is derived and of which in is 



Wha t is Baptism ? 186 

the translation. The Revised Version puts in in the 
margin, and the American revisers went on record 
as preferring to make the text read ' ' in water ' ' and 
4 'in the Holy Ghost" in all these passages. The 
British revisers did not deny that this was the right 
meaning, but being more conservative than the 
Americans, they hesitated to make the correction. 
That the meaning is "in water'" and "in the Holy 
Ghost" is not denied, so far as I know, by any lead- 
ing scholar. And, besides, those who practice im- 
mersion, immerse with water, using no other ele- 
ment. 

But this prophecy of Jesus was fulfilled on the 
<lay of Pentecost when "suddenly there came from 
heaven a sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind, 
and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 
And there appeared unto them tongues parting 
asunder, like as of fire; and it sat upon each one of 
them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, 
and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit 
gave them utterance. " Acts ii. 2-<t. Here the Spirit 
filled the house where they were sitting and filled 
them, and this is spoken of figuratively as a baptism, 
and very appropriately so. Feter in his sermon, 
however, referred to this gift of the Spirit as a ful- 
fillment of the prophecy of Joel : " I will pour out 
of my Spirit upon all flesh" (Acts ii. 17), and it is ar- 
gued that baptism is therefore a pouring. The ar- 
gument clearly stated is : 

The gift of the Spirit at Pentecost is called a 
baptism. 



186 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

The same thing is called a pouring. 

Therefore pouring is baptism. 
The absurdity of this argument is clearly seen the 
moment we apply it to other things, for example : 

Christ is called in Scripture a rock. 

Christ is called in Scripture a vine. 

Therefore a vine is a rock. 
or : 

Christ is called a lamb. 

Christ is called a lion. 

Therefore a lion is a lamb. 
or : 

Christians are called sheep. 

Christians are called vine branches. 

Therefore vine branches are sheep. 
Speaking of the coming down of the Holy Spirit 
from above, Joel calls it pouring; while speaking of 
the result on the people — filling the house and fill- 
ing them — Jesus calls it a baptism. It was the Holy 
Spirit which was "poured," while it was the people 
who were "baptized." 

The act of baptism is described in Acts viii. 36-39 : 
"And as they went on the way, they came unto a 
certain water; and the eunuch saith, Behold, here is 
water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And 
he commanded the chariot to stand still : and they 
both went down into the water, both Philip and the 
eunuch; and he baptized him. And when they came 
up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught 
away Philip; and the eunuch saw him no more, for 
he went on his way rejoicing." The 37th verse,, 



What is Baptism f 187 

not belonging to the true text, is very properly 
omitted in the Revised Version. The description of 
the baptism, however, could hardly be more com- 
plete. Reader, just read over that passage again 
carefully and ask yourself, what was it Philip did to 
that eunuch? That was done in the right way. 
Unless jou went down into the water, were then 
baptized, and came up out of the water, your baptism 
was not of the New Testament kind. I know it used 
to be said that where Philip baptized the eunuch 
was a dry region without water enough for immer- 
sion; and it also used to be said that the river Jor- 
dan was too small a stream to allow of immersion. 
But since so many travelers from this country have 
visited Palestine, intelligent people have ceased such 
talk. Dr. Talmage immersed a man in the river 
Jordan, as many other American ministers have 
done. The river Sorek runs along where Philip 
and the eunuch went, and Dr. W. M. Thomson, 
author of The Land and the Book, describing that 
region, says that there is plenty of water there i; to 
satisfy the utmost wishes of our Baptist friends.' 7 

Many references to baptism are made in the Acts, 
without any description, but since so good a descrip- 
tion is given in the Sth chapter, it could hardly be 
expected that it would be repeated. In the 9th 
chapter, for example, the baptism of Saul of Tarsus 
is mentioned, with the simple words, " And he arose 
and was baptized. *' Had sprinkling or pouring been 
employed there had been no need of his arising, 
since already kneeling he was in a position to re- 



188 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

ceive the sprinkling or the pouring. And had the 
baptism mentioned in the 9th chapter differed from 
that described in the 8th chapter, the difference 
would certainly have been pointed out. Moreover, 
if any man can tell us how that baptism was per- 
formed, Paul is the man; and he writes to the Ro- 
mans (vi. 4) : " We were buried therefore with him 
through baptism into death: that like as Christ was 
raised from the dead through the glory of the 
Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. " 
Conybeare and Howson render this passage : " With 
Him, therefore, we were buried by the baptism 
wherein we shared His death [when we sank be- 
neath the waters] : that even as Christ was raised up 
from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we like- 
wise might walk in newness of life." They add in 
.a foot-note: "This passage cannot be understood 
unless it be borne in mind that the primitive bap- 
tism was by immersion. ' ' 

A prominent Presbyterian lawyer once said to 
me : "I have heard my pastor explain Romans 
vi. 4, and it was never clear to me before." "How 
did he explain it \ " 1 asked. " Why, " said he, "he 
showed that Christ was not buried at all, that His 
body was laid on a shelf, in Joseph's sepulchre, and 
there being no burial in the case, this passage cannot 
mean immersion." Whereupon I got a New Testa- 
ment and asked him to read I. Cor. xv. 3,4:' 'For 
I delivered unto you first of all that which also I re- 
ceived, how that Christ died for our sins according 
to the Scriptures; and that he was buried; and that 



What is Baptism? 189 

he hath been raised on the third day according to the 
Scriptures.'' "There," said I, "you read that 
Christ was buried, while you report your preacher 
as saying he was not buried." "I see;" said the 
lawyer, ' ' and I suppose my pastor did not know 
this passage was in the Bible." "It is to be hoped 
so," I added. 

It may be well to mention the baptism of the 
jailer at Philippi, recorded in Acts xvi. 29-31. Paul 
and Silas are in the dungeon, with their feet "fast 
in the stocks." The earthquake comes and arouses 
and alarms the sleeping jailer who would kill him- 
self but for Paul's voice of warning. Then the jailer 
"called for lights, and sprang in, and, trembling 
for fear, fell down before Paul and Silas, and 
brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to 
be saved % " Here it is written the jailer " brought 
them out" — let us see where he led them. The 
narrative goes on : "And they said, Believe on the 
Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy 
house. And they spake the word of the Lord unto 
him and unto all that were in his house." This 
shows he led them out of the prison into his house, 
for here they are preaching to all in the house. We 
read on : "And he took them" — w T e will see later 
where he took them — " the same hour of the night," 
— between twelve and one o'clock — "and washed 
their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, im- 
mediately. And he brought them up into his house, 
and set meat before them, and rejoiced greatly," 
etc. They were thus taken from the prison into the: 



1 90 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

jailer's house, thence out somewhere in the night, 
where he was baptized, and then he brought them 
" up into his house" again. Now is it likely that 
a new convert would carry the preachers out of the 
house between twelve and one o'clock at night if 
what he wanted was to have a little water sprinkled 
or poured upon him and upon his household ? The 
narrative is inconsistent with the idea of sprinkling 
or of pouring. And then, too, if this baptism had 
differed from that described in the 8th chapter we 
may be sure Luke would have pointed out the differ- 
ence. But it could not have differed since it is writ- 
ten, ''One Lord, one faith, one baptism." Jesus 
performed but one act for baptism. He did not sub- 
mit to sprinkling, pouring, and immersion, all three, 
and, telling us "the mode is nonessential," give us 
our choice of the three. No ; He did but one thing, 
and that, as I have shown, was immersion, and that 
is what He commands all who love Him to do. "If 
ye love me keep my commandments." "Hereby 
do we know that we know him, if we keep his com- 
mandments. He that saith, I know him, and keep- 
eth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth 
is not in him." I. John ii. 3, 4. 

But it is objected that 3,000 persons could not 
have been immersed on the day of Pentecost, and 
therefore sprinkling or pouring must have been used. 
I answer. First : It is not said that 3,000 were bap- 
tized on that day. The language is that "there 
were added unto them in that day about three thou- 
sand souls." They may have been baptized at other 



What is Baptism? 191 

times. Second : It does not take any longer to im- 
merse a candidate than to sprinkle or to pour water 
upon him, with the accompanying ceremony. Third : 
Not only 3,000, but several times that number could 
easily have been immersed on the day of Pentecost. 
Three Baptist preachers in six hours in Ongole, 
India, did immerse 2,222 candidates. According 
to this the twelve (for Mathias had taken Judas' 
place; could have immersed 13,332 persons. But 
there were more than twelve administrators, for it is 
written that in that upper chamber at Jerusalem 
there were "an hundred and twenty" present, and 
on the day of Pentecost " they were all with one ac- 
cord in one place/' It is evident therefore that 
there is no force in the objection that "three thou- 
sand could not have been immersed on the day of 
Pentecost." 

It is argued that John's baptism, to which Jesus 
submitted, was not Christian baptism, and that our 
Lord was baptized in order to be inducted into his 
priesthood. It is urged that since certain sprink- 
lings were in the consecration of the Aaronic priests, 
John must have sprinkled the water on Christ. It 
is strange that the same persons should urge both 
these arguments since they are mutually destructive, 
and to show this is why they are here mentioned to- 
gether. If John's baptism was sprinkling and was 
not Christian baptism then sprinkling is wrong. 
The passage in Acts xix. 2-5, is relied upon to show 
a difference between John's baptism and Christian 
baptism. Those disciples at Ephesus ; ' had not so 



1 92 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost," 1 
and yet they claimed to have been baptized "unto 
John's baptism." They certainly had never heard 
John preach, since he preached about the Holy 
Ghost (Matt. iii. 11 and Luke iii. 16). They had 
probably been baptized by some who had heard 
John, and who did not understand the matter 
rightly'. This baptism being defective was not valid 
and these candidates must be baptized. That a man 
has already received an improper baptism is no 
reason he should not be baptized rightly. 

John's baptism was the only kind Jesus and the 
Apostles received, and if it were not Christian bap- 
tism, then those who established the first churches 
never received Christian baptism. The very word 
Christian is Christ-ian, and to say that what Christ 
did was not Christian is a contradiction. No, the 
Bible gives no warrant for drawing any distinction 
between John's baptism and Christiam baptism. 
Christ did a certain thing and called it baptism; 
when he commands us to be baptized, He must have 
intended for us to do that thing. 

As for Christ's being baptized in order to be in- 
ducted into his priesthood, that is a notion utterly 
foreign to Scripture, and to the facts of the case. 
Jesus was not a priest after the order of Aaron at 
all, but after the order of Melchisedek, and was 
never " inducted into His priesthood," since He was 
"a priest forever," "having neither beginning of 
days nor end of life." No ceremonial consecration 
was in order, since He was made a priest ' ' not after 



What is Baptism? 193 

a law of a carnal commandment, but after the power 
of an endless life. " • Heb. vii. 16. In the seventh 
chapter of Hebrews, Christ's priesthood is discussed 
and the distinction between His priesthood and the 
Aaronic is emphasized. All the Aaronic priests 
must be of the tribe of Levi, and of the family of 
Aaron, while Christ was of the tribe of Judah. 
"For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of 
Judah : of which tribe Moses spake nothing con- 
cerning priesthood." Heb. vii. li. And besides, 
in the consecration of the Aaronic priests there were 
various ceremonies in addition to the ablutions, 
shaving, being clad in special garments, etc., etc. 
Why were all these omitted if Jesus was baptized as 
a consecration to the priesthood I And it was no 
part of John's business to consecrate Aaronic priests; 
that was the business of Caiaphas and Annas. 

The early version of the New Testament into 
Syriac translates the Greek paitri**** by amad, which 
means immerse. The great ' l Thesaurus Syriacus, "' 
the highest authority on Syriac, defines amad, 
"descendit, m&rsus est, haptizatus est''' 1 — to descend, 
to immerse, to baptize. 

In Greece, where the Greek language is still 
spoken, only immersion is practiced for baptism, 
and the Greeks laugh at the idea of pamrtZofa mean- 
ing sprinkle or pour. If the Greeks do not know 
the meaning of a Greek word — who does know ? — 
[Extract from Dr. Eaton's book on "Faith of the. 
Baptists.^] 



13 



DEFENSE OF THE PHILADELPHIA CONFES- 
SION OF FAITH. 

BY T. T. EATON. 

The Philadelphia Confession of Faith is not re- 
sponsible for the wild interpretations put upon it, 
any more than the Bible is responsible for the same 
thing. That Confession is a venerable and, in many 
respects, a noble document, and we hope the wild 
interpretations some are seeking to put on it will 
not bring it into disrepute. 

The attempt is made to make it appear that the 
Philadelphia Confession declares that Christ built 
" the universal invisible church ; ' on the Rock, which 
,u universal invisible church" should exist in all 
ages; and also that this Confession opposes the view 
that Baptists have existed in every age since the 
Apostles. This is a gross and a groundless misrep- 
resentation of that venerable document. It says : 

" The Catholic or universal church which, with re- 
spect to the internal work of the Spirit and truth of 
grace, may be called invisible, consists of the whole 
number of the elect that have been, are, or shall be 
gathered into one under Christ, the head thereof, 
and is the spouse, the body, the fullness of him that 
fillethallin all." 

Let this language be noted. The Romanists 
claimed that their hierarchy was ' ' the Catholic or 

(194) 



Defense of the Philadelphia Confession of Faith. 195 

universal church," and these Baptists in Philadel- 
phia contradicted that claim by declaring that only 
"the whole number of the elect that have been, are, 
or shall be gathered into one " can rightly be called 
"the catholic or universal church.'' It takes all 
the elect of all ages to make "the catholic or uni- 
versal church." Of course, then, the little fraction 
of them alive at any given time cannot be called the 
church. Of course, then, this church cannot exist 
in every age, because its material, except a part of 
it, and perhaps a very small part, had not come into 
existence when our Baptist fathers adopted that lan- 
guage. If the world shall continue ten thousand 
years longer, the last man saved will be part of the 
"universal church," which this document declares 
to be composed of ' ' the whole number of the elect 
that have been, are [A. D. 1742. — Ed.], or shall be 
gathered into one" etc. To talk about all the elect 
as existing through all ages, is ridiculously gro- 
tesque. It is likely that only a small fraction of 
them have even yet (A. D. 1899) come into exist- 
ence; and certainly those born since 1742 could not 
have continued in existence before that date. What, 
])ray, have men born in the 20th century to do with 
resisting the "gates of hell" in the 10th century ? 
Let it be remembered that, according to the Phila- 
delphia Confession, it takes all the elect of all ages 
to make "the catholic or universal church " — not 
the part of them alive in one age. 

Let it be noted also that this Confession makes 
not the slightest hint that Christ meant this "catho- 



196 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

lie or universal church" when He said : " On this 
rock 1 will build my church." Matt. 16:18, is not 
quoted at all. 

This "universal church" is "invisible" only 
" with respect to the internal work of the Spirit." 
It will be visible when it is " gathered into one." 
Of course, the internal work of the Spirit is invisi- 
ble. 

There is also in this entire Confession not the 
slightest suggestion that there has been a day since 
the Apostles when there were no Baptists in the 
world. On the contrary, all that is said on the sub- 
ject assumes their continued existence. But since 
that was not then a matter of dispute, the document 
is not very full on that point. Thomas Crosby had 
just issued his great history in which he distinctly 
claimed, and argued at length to maintain the claim, 
that Baptists had continued in the world from the 
Apostles to his day; and these Baptists in Philadel- 
phia took for granted that this was generally admit- 
ted among their brethren, and needed not to be 
specially declared. Nevertheless, this Confession 
does say : 

' ' The purest churches under heaven are subject 
to mixture and error, and some have so degenerated 
as to become no churches of Christ, but synagogues 
of Satan; nevertheless, Christ always hath had, and 
ever shall have, a kingdom in this world, to the end 
thereof, of such as believe in him and make profes- 
sion of his name." 

In spite of the fact that "the purest churches 






Defense of the Philadelphia Confession of Faith, 191 

under heaven are subject to mixture and error," and 
some have gone so far astray as to become "syna- 
gogues of Satan," yet all of the churches have not 
thus gone astray, but " Christ always hath had and 
ever shall have a kingdom in this world, of such as 
believe in him and make profession of his name," 
i. e. , of pure churches which do not become ' ; syna- 
gogues of Satan." 

Again this Confession declares : 

"A particular church, gathered and completely 
organized according to the mind of Christ, consists 
of officers and members; and the officers, appointed 
by Christ to be chosen and set apart by the church 
so called and gathered for the peculiar administra- 
tion of ordinances and execution of power and duty 
which he entrusts them with, or calls them to, to be 
continued to the end of the world, are bishops, or 
elders, and deacons." 

Then there have been, according to this docu- 
ment, particular churches "gathered and com- 
pletely organized according to the mind of Christ/' 
"for the peculiar administration of ordinances, 1 ' 
etc., in all ages; since "according to the mind of 
Christ" they were " to be continued to the end of 
the world." And yet we are asked to believe that 
the Philadelphia Confession is opposed to the idea 
of the continuity of Baptists through the ages since 
the Apostles !!!!!! 



CHAPTER IX. 
J. R. GRAVES, LL.D. 

J. R. Graves was born in Chester, Vt., April 10, 
1820. He was left a half orphan at the age of 
three weeks, and his mother had but little of this 
world's goods to maintain her family. Being left 
to the sole care of his mother so young in life, and 
never knowing a father's care, he was forced to a 
greater degree of self-reliance than is usual for boys, 
and his whole after life has spoken volumes of what 
that rigid discipline did for him. 

At the age of fifteen he was converted and joined 
the church in North Springfield, Yt. 

After teaching two years in Kingsville Academy, 
Ohio, he went to Kentucky, where he took charge 
of the Clear Creek Academy, near Nicholas ville. 
While teaching here, his church licensed him to 
preach without his knowledge, but he at first re- 
fused to enter the ministry, feeling his weakness 
and un worthiness. In fact, he stated that he felt 
himself wholly unqualified for his great work. 

After praying over the matter, and consulting 
with friends, he determined to prepare himself for 
the great work of preaching. For four years he 
gave six hours a day to the school room, and eight 
to study, going through a college course without a 
teacher. Besides making the Bible his principal 

(198) 




J. R. GRAVES, LL.D. 



/. B. Graves, LL.D- 199 

text book, he mastered a modern language every 
year, and gave due attention to science, philosophy 
and literature. 

In 1845 he moved to Nashville, Tenn., where he- 
opened a school known as the J ^'?ie Street Classical 
and Jlathematical Academy. During the same year 
he took charge of the Second Baptist church, in that 
city, as pastor. This church is now known as the 
Central church. While pastor of this church he be- 
came editor of the Tennessee Baptist, in which posi- 
tion he continued for about forty-six years. 

Dates and figures cannot estimate such a charac- 
ter as J. R. Graves. We may be able to count his 
converts or tell the number of sermons preached, 
and the great debates he held, but no man can know 
this side of the eternal shores what great things were 
accomplished by him. His indirect influence (what 
he influenced other men to do) was a hundredfold 
greater than all he ever did directly. One sermon,, 
or editorial, by him would start a hundred influences 
to work in as many different parts of the country. 
Who can compute such a life as that ? 

As an editor, J. R. Graves set the pace for other 
Baptist papers, and his disciples became their ed- 
itors. Great men, like Dr. Bright, of the JVew 
York Examiner, were so influenced by him that 
they gave up cherished opinions and doctrines and 
adopted the ideas of Dr. Graves. No other man 
has ever had so wide and powerful influence over the 
Baptists of America, and in that respect he still lives. 
on. 



200 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

The Tennessee Baptist at one time had the largest 
circulation of any Baptist paper in the world, and it 
held that honorable position for years. The matter 
it contained was of the very best, and on every page 
shone the spirit of the editor. To read through the 
files of the old Tennessee Baptist is an education in 
itself. 

As a writer of religious books Dr. Graves stands 
in the forefront. In the midst of his great labors 
he found time to write and publish "The Desire of 
All Nations," "The Watchman's Reply," "The 
Trilemma, " "The First Baptist Church in Amer- 
ica," "The Little Iron Wheel," "The Great Iron 
Wheel," " The Bible Doctrine of the Middle Life," 
"Exposition of Modern Spiritism," "Old Land- 
markism; What Is It?" "Exposition of the Para- 
bles," "John's Baptism," "Intercommunion Un- 
scriptural, Inconsistent and Evil Only," "Denom- 
inational Sermons," etc. Besides these he compiled 
two song books and brought out, reprinted and pub- 
lished, Robinson's "History of Baptism," Wall's 
"History of Infant Baptism," Orchard's " History 
of Baptists," " Stewart on Baptism," besides numer- 
ous tracts, pamphlets, etc. 

In addition to all this he wrote " Seven Dispensa- 
tions" one of the greatest works on Systematic 
Theology that has ever been published. While this 
great book is especially adapted to students, it will 
be read with interest by any intelligent reader. 

These books have all had a wide reading and 
great influence. His "Great Iron Wheel" had 



J. B. Graves, LL.D. 201 

•such a powerful influence on Methodism that it re- 
sulted in then- remodeling their church government 
so that laymen could be admitted to the General 
Conference. Hundreds of Pedobaptists, overpow- 
ered by his logic and overcome by his appeals, came 
to the Baptists and have since made useful mem- 
bers. These books are still being circulated, and 
new editions will be brought out, and thus the great 
life work of Dr. Graves will go on. 

As a preacher, there was but one man in his day 
who ever approached him in power, and that was 
Richard Fuller. He was pre-eminently doctrinal. 
He believed that men should be controlled by prin- 
ciple, and he dealt in great principles in his preach- 
ing. He placed the greatest emphasis on the great- 
est doctrines. The doctrine of Salvation by Grace 
was his great theme. All else centered here. 
1 ' Blood Before Water, Christ Before the Church, ' ' 
was his motto. His greatest sermon was on the 
Atonement of Christ. His greatest arguments have 
been those directed against the idea of church salva- 
tion. In his sermon, published in the volume of 
sermons entitled "Denominational Sermons," on 
" The Relation of Baptism to Salvation,"' he is most 
emphatic in his declarations that baptism has noth- 
ing to do with salvation except as it symbolizes the 
work of grace. Grace is the substance, baptism the 
shadow. On page 18 in this sermon he says : "A 
moral nature renewed by the Holy Spirit — a birth 
from above — is in all cases essential to baptism, and 
that the rite, among other things, was appointed to 



202 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

symbolize this great fact; that it is the act for the 
profession of repentance exercised, of faith possessed 
and regeneration enjoyed." Baptism must, while it 
is important, stay in its place. Baptism with J. R. 
Graves was not a saviour, but it did symbolize the 
work of the Saviour. He placed the emphasis where 
it belonged. This much has been said concerning 
the doctrine he preached because a certain slanderer 
has accused him of teaching that only Baptists would 
be saved. 

As a devotional preacher, Dr. Graves had few 
equals. He would have his audiences bathed in 
tears in the midst of one of his great doctrinal ser- 
mons. His power over an audience was wonderful. 
He has been known to cause an audience to' burst 
out in uproarious laughter, and in a moment there- 
after have them weeping, and that, too, with one 
sentence. Many men have the power to bring laugh- 
ter or tears from the audience, but they do it with a 
series of sentences. Dr. Graves frequently did it 
in one sentence. There was something about him 
here that cannot be put on paper. The writer has 
seen him exercise matchless power. Of all the great 
orators who have ever lived no other was ever known 
to be able to bring laughter and tears with one sen- 
tence at one time. 

At Waco, Texas, during the sitting of the South- 
ern Baptist Convention, a few years ago, the house 
where the convention was held was so uncomforta- 
bly packed that it was suggested that preaching be 
announced for one of the neighboring meeting 



/. B. Graves, LL.D. 203 

houses. It was accordingly announced that a cer- 
tain prominent preacher would, within twenty min- 
utes, preach at the Methodist church, just across the 
street. A few went out to hear the sermon, but not 
enough to make a congregation, and all who went 
out soon came back. It was then announced that 
another brother would preach, and still but few left 
the convention building. At last Dr. B. H. Carroll, 
at that time pastor of the church in Waco, an- 
nounced that ' ' Dr. J. R. Graves would preach at 
the Methodist church in ten minutes. " Immediately 
there was a rush for the doors. It seemed that 
everybody wanted to get to that Methodist church, 
and in five minutes' time the large auditorium was 
packed to the doors and the convention building 
practically emptied. The president of the conven- 
tion begged the members of the convention to re- 
main, but nobody could afford to miss that sermon. 
It was pronounced by almost all who heard it to 
be the greatest sermon they ever heard. He told 
of the wonderful grace of God, and the people wept 
and rejoiced and forgot all else. When Dr. J. B. 
Searcy returned to his appointed home, which was 
with a Methodist preacher's family, he heard sup- 
pressed voices and subdued weeping in the parlor as 
he was about to pass by. The Methodist preacher 
called him in, and, with great emotion, confessed 
that up to that time he had misunderstood Dr. 
Graves, and said that he did not doubt that in the 
next generation Dr. Graves would be quoted as an 
authority on the great doctrine of Salvation by 
Grace. 



204 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

As an evangelist he had few equals. Not only 
hundreds, but thousands, were converted under his 
preaching. Some of his notable protracted meet- 
ings were as follows : At Brownsville, Tenn., in 
1849, in which meeting more than seventy persons 
were converted. Before he was thirty years old 
more than 1,300 persons had professed faith in 
Christ under his preaching. At Bowling Green, 
Ky., he conducted a meeting for J. M. Pendleton, 
when more than seventy-five persons were baptized 
as a result. Thus he went from place to place, 
preaching the Word. 

His ability as a debater was recognized as decid- 
edly superior to any man in his day and only one 
man (J. N. Hall) has equaled him since. His 
greatest debate was with Dr. Jacob Ditzler, Metho- 
dist, at Carrollton, Mo. This debate has been pub- 
lished in book form and has had a wide circulation. 
The defeat of Dr. Ditzler was crushing, but the fact 
of his debating with so great a man as J. R. Graves 
gave him a reputation on which he has lived ever 
since. 

In one of his debates he wrote the ^Puzzled 
Dutchman" which has since had such a wide circu- 
lation, and read it, giving full expression to the 
German brogue, at one of the hours of the debate. 
The confusion of his opponent and the effect on the 
audience was so great that it won him an easy vic- 
tory. 

Dr. Graves was never a ready speaker in conven- 
tions or associations, hence he seldom spoke, and 



/. B. Graves, LL.D. 205 

sometimes when he did he made a failure. It was 
when he had command of the situation for a set 
speech or a sermon, or in the heat of debate, that 
he rose to the greatness which has made him famous. 

As a presiding officer he had good talents. He 
was frequently elected Moderator of his association 
and other gatherings. He originated the first Min- 
isters' Institute. He raised, without compensation, 
an endowment of a theological chair in Union Uni- 
versity. He originated the Southwestern Baptist 
Publishing House at Nashville, Tenn. 

While engaged in the hard work of editor and 
that of going from pillar to post preaching, debat- 
ing, holding meetings, he was offered 83,000 per 
year to go to New Orleans and accept permanent 
work as pastor. The salary was enormous for that 
day. At that time J. M. Pendleton was getting 
only 8-100 a year at Bowling Green, Ky., and 
Graves himself was not making for the support of 
his family a thousand dollars a year. Yet the great 
salary did not tempt him to leave what he believed 
was his God-appointed work. By continuing stead- 
fastly in his life work he exerted a powerful influ- 
ence that would have been impossible otherwise. 
S. H. Ford said of him in " The Christian Repos- 
itory^ of December, 1899 : "There is no question 
in regard to Graves' influence over hundreds of 
thousands of men and women of intelligence — an in- 
fluence which still remains, at least to a great extent. 
That there was a power in the man — a power that 
rallied around him such men as Pendleton, Crawford 



206 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

and Dayton — men of master minds and general 
scholarship — is admitted by those who feared him 
while living and misrepresented him when dead. 
* * * To measure such a heroic soul with the 
soft-stepping delineator of ' hidden virtues ' and 
' human progress ' and general indifference to truths 
of the gospel ; to weigh such a man's words in the 
scales of a nicely-balanced logic, and draw infer- 
ences contrary to all he believed and taught, is like 
measuring the winds with a yardstick, or charging 
some star with the sorrows of one's destiny, or blam- 
ing the light of the moon for the failing of a potato 
crop. " 

Perhaps the greatest sermon he ever preached was 
from the text, ' ' The veil of the temple was rent in 
twain from the top to the bottom." Dr. S. H. Ford 
described this great sermon in the depository , Feb. , 
1900. At the time Dr. Ford heard it, it was 
preached in the East Baptist church, Louisville, 
Ky., during the session of the Southern Baptist 
Convention, in 1857. The description is as follows: 
"After describing the 'Holiest of all,' the mercy 
seat, the high priest's yearly entry, the veil, etc., he 
directed the thought to the ascent of Calvary, seen 
from the temple and watched by the priests — the 
darkened sky, the rending rocks, the earthquake 
causing the temple and veil to tremble — and then 
the sudden rending of the spacious veil. It was 
brief, graphic and touching. He went on to show 
that the riven veil was a visible, ocular declaration 
that all priestly forms and all ceremonial impedi- 



/. B. Graves, LL.D. 207 

ments or interventions, sacrifices and purifications, 
were swept away by the death of Christ. The 
mercy seat was laid bare. Not a church, not a 
saint or angel, person or preacher, priest or ordi- 
nance — absolutely no one, and nothing intervened 
between the contrite soul and the throne of grace — 
the blood-sprinkled mercy seat. 

" No notes were taken by the writer, but its effect 
was lasting. The only time in his recollection that 
his hair seemed to actually rise on his head was 
when hearing that discourse. It was positively 
powerful. 

"He closed with a burst of eloquence. Pausing, 
seemingly overpowered with his emotions, or want- 
ing words to express them, with uplifted hands and 
eyes, he exclaimed : 

" ' O, thou blessed mercy seat, hidden through 
the ages by the cloud of sin, the veil of wrath, the 
way to thy holy place is opened, the glory that 
crowns thee may be approached, and thy blessing 
obtained. I hear the voice of the Eternal issuing 
from thy mysterious recesses, saying, Come unto 
Me — not to angel or saint, or priest, or preacher, or 
church, or ordinance — come unto Me and be ye 
saved all ye ends of the earth, and O, Lamb of God, 
I come, I come.' " 

The sermon was heard by the greatest men in the 
convention, such as Boyce, Jeter, Burrows, Howell, 
Manly and others, and they pronounced it the best 
sermon ever preached in their hearing. It formed 
the subject for conversation for several days there- 
after. 



208 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

Such was J. R. Graves, the greatest preacher, the 
most forcible writer, the ablest debater and strong- 
est editor of his day. His equal has not jet arisen. 
When God has need of another like him he will 
raise him up. One man of that kind each century 
is as much as the world deserves. 

Yet, after all that has been said, together with 
much more that might be said, there is something 
felt by all who knew Dr. Graves that cannot be put 
in writing. This writer well remembers how the 
whole current of his thought was influenced by 
J. R. Graves. When only a boy — nineteen years 
old — he drove twenty miles in a road cart to hear 
the great man preach. He heard him for five days, 
he bought and read his books, and his faith in God 
was strengthened, his belief in Baptist doctrines 
solidified, and he has never wavered since that 
blessed day in his belief of the great doctrines held 
by the Baptists. This writer is proud to confess 
himself to be a disciple of J. R. Graves, and he 
strives to follow Graves as Graves followed Paul 
and the Christ. 

The clear and able discussion of the "Effect of 
Baptism" at the close of this sketch is commended 
to the careful study of all who care to know the 
teaching of the Bible on that subject. The volume 
of "Denominational Sermons" from which it is 
taken should have a much wider reading than it has 
had. 

On the 26th of June, 1893, Dr. Graves fell asleep. 
His spirit is no doubt now in Paradise awaiting the 



J. R. Graves, LL.D. 209 

resurrection of the body. He relied on God in life 
and fought the good fight of faith, and while the 
Lord let him pass through the deep waters frequently, 
he always enabled him to triumph in the end. 

i; Even down to old age, all my people shall prove 
My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love; 
And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn, 
Like lambs they shall still in my bosom be borne. 

"Fear not, I am with thee; O be not dismayed ! 
I, I am thy God, and will still give thee aid; 
I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand, 
Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand." 

The sentiment of that great hymn was the actual 
experience of J. R. Graves. 



14 



EXTRACT FROM SERMON. 

BY J. R. GRAVES, LL. D. , 
ON THE EFFECT OF BAPTISM. 

1. Negatively, it does not procure for us the re- 
mission of past sins. 

Christ has not proposed two ways for this blessing 
to be attained, nor is the way proclaimed in the New, 
different from the one taught in the Old Testament, 
.and that was undoubtedly by faith alone, disconnected 
with any overt act : 

"To him gave all the prophets witness, that through his 
name whosoever believeth on him shall receive the remis- 
sion of sins." (Acts x:43.) 

2. Nor by baptism do we wash our sins away, save 
in a figure, for — 

"The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth from all 
sin." (1 John i:7.) 

3. Nor by baptism are we regenerated or born 
again : 

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be born from 
above, he can not see the kingdom of God." — Christ. 

4. Nor are we made the children of God by bap- 
tism : 

"For we are all the children of God by faith in Jesus 
•Christ." (Gal. iii:26.) 

(210) 



Extract from Sermon. 211 

Nor is baptism even a means or a sacrament by 
which, or on account of which, we have access to 
Christ, through whom we alone obtain every needed 



"Therefore, being justified by faith we have peace with 
God through our Lord Jesus Christ : by whom, also, we have 
access by faith into this grace, wherein ye stand, and rejoice 
in hope of the glory of God." (Rom. v:l.) 

It is constantly asked of Baptists, What good does 
baptism do if it in no ways secures you salvation % 

I answer, Much every way, and chiefly because — 

1. By submitting to the act he appointed we obey 
Christ. 

No words or thought can express or conceive the 
obligations we are under to love Christ and to obey 
him. The slave that is bought with the gold of the 
master is under obligations to serve him, or the cap- 
tive whose life lias been saved or redeemed by the 
sacrifice of another is under weighty obligations to 
love, and to gratify the reasonable wishes of his re- 
deemer and saviour. The child is under the highest 
earthly obligations to love and do the will of his 
father, and for it to refuse is to violate all filial obli- 
gations. But Christ redeemed us, when captives, 
from the enemy of our souls; and when he found us 
.sold under sin he not only redeemed us by lay- 
ing down his own life for us, but through him we 
have been adopted into the heavenly family, and 
made sons and daughters of the Most High God. 
Our obligations to obey Christ are infinite, and, as 
certainly as we are his children, we will desire to 



212 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

obey, and we will love to obey; and the language of 
our hearts will be, ' ' Lord what wilt thou have me to 
do?" The characteristic spirit of Christ was that of 
obedience; and the Holy Spirit saith, "He that 
hath not the mind of Christ is none of his." Bap- 
tism is the first and most important act of obedience 
Christ requires of his child — an act without which we 
can not obey several other important commands of 
Christ. 

2. By baptism we honor Christ. 

It is not by our words and professions that we put 
the highest honor upon Christ. Indeed, if we stop 
at words and professions he will not accept us. The 
highest honor we can reflect upon Christ is to cheer- 
fully obey him in all things whatsoever he commands 
us. He abominates mere lip service. How severe 
the reproof he gave this class when in the flesh : 
" Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things 
I command you ? " "Ye hypocrites, well did Isaias 
prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh 
unto me with their mouth, and honoreth me with 
their lips ; but their heart is far from me." (Matt. 
xv:7,8.) 

What a privilege of being allowed by any act to 
put honor upon Christ before men and angels ! A 
child of God will consider this his highest joy. 

3. By obeying Christ in baptism we secure many 
and special blessings. 

David testified that in keeping the commandments 
of his God, there was great reward, and that reward 
is both here and hereafter. If we are a friend of 



Extract from Sermon. 213 

Christ or child of God we desire to honor him. But 
in no way possible can we honor Christ or offer him 
more sincere worship than by obedience to his com- 
mands ; and he has said, "They that honor me will 
my Father honor. " Who can estimate the value and 
the blessedness of being honored of God before men 
here and angels hereafter : 

" If a man love me he will keep my words, and my Father 
will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our 
abode with him." (John xiv:23.) 

"Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you." 

What more or greater blessings for time can be de- 
sired than are implied in the above two promises ? 
And then when we meet him at last we hear him 
say : 

"Well done, good and faithful servant, thou hast been 
faithful over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many 
things, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." 

What more of heaven could be expressed than is 
implied in these words ? We may assure ourselves 
that Christ will not tell an untruth to save any one. 
The willingly, no more than the willfully, disobedient 
will hear those words. 

Then there is a special blessing promised that 
none but the truly baptized do enjoy, namely, "The 
answer — satisfaction— of a good conscience toward 
God." 

Baptism has no part in making a good conscience. 
The quickening of the Holy Spirit and the enlight- 
enment of the word make a good conscience, that can 
only be quieted and satisfied when full obedience to 



214 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

Christ's command has been rendered ; and therefore- 
no other act for baptism but the one Christ com- 
mands will ever satisfy a good conscience. Tens of 
thousands have testified to this, and thousands yearly, 
ministers and members, testify that nothing but be- 
ing buried with Christ in baptism, to show forth his 
death, burial and resurrection for their salvation, 
avails to satisfy their consciences. 

4:. We profess our faith, confess our discipleship. 
and evidence our friendship for Christ before men. 

These acts Christ requires of every friend, — 

" Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and 
our bodies bathed in pure water, let us hold fast the profes- 
sion of our faith." (Heb. x.) 

"If thou wilt openly confess with thy mouth, that Jesus is 
Lord, and wilt believe in thy heart that God raised him from 
the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man be- 
lieveth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is 
made unto salvation." (Heb. x:9,10.) 

"For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him 
shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he shall come in his 
glory," etc. (Luke ix:26.) 

"And whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after me 
can not be my disciple. Ye are my friends if ye do whatso- 
ever I command you." (John xv:14.) 

5. By baptism we are introduced into a local 
church, and thereby into Christ's visible kingdom : 

' ' Christ has a kingdom on earth, and he has churches. No 
one of his churches is his kingdom, but each one is an inte- 
gral portion of his kingdom." — Dr. A. P. Williams. 

The visible churches, then, compose his kingdom, 
and by entering a church we enter his kingdom. We 
are baptized into a visible church. 



Extract from Sermon. 215 

On the day of Pentecost three thousand were added 
to the church by baptism. They were baptized, and 
there is no intimation of any interfering act. Bap- 
tism, then, according to the record, if it is full, was the 
consummating act. Christ said to IS icodemus, "Un- 
less a man be born of water and [added to the birth] 
of the Spirit, he could not enter his kingdom." Paul 
says : ' ' For in one spirit we were all baptized into one 
body ; " i. e., some local church, like that at Corinth ;; 
and lest any one might conceive that by one "body" 
he did not mean a local church, but some one univer- 
sal, general body, in the twenty-seventh verse, he ex- 
pressly tells them: "Now ye are a body of Christ 
and members in part," i. e., fellow-members. 

The oldest Articles of faith put forth by our fathers 
are those of 1120. In the seventh article, after 
stating that they regarded baptism as an outward sign 
of an invisible grace, read : 

"And by this ordinance we are received into the holy con- 
gregation of God's people." 

Dr. Dagg says : "The opinion has been held, al- 
most as a theological axiom, that baptism is the door 
into the church," and we add, not by Baptists, but 
by all denominations. 

Dr. Harvey's work on ' ' The Church, " issued by the 
American Publication Society, says : 

"Baptism is the rite of admission to the church, the pub- 
lic act of separating from the world and uniting with God's 
people. It is the door of the house of God." 



216 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 



BAPTISM, BY INITIATING US INTO A LOCAL CHURCH OF 
CHRIST, ENTITLES US TO ALL THE PRIVILEGES AND 
RIGHTS OF THE CHURCH, NOT LEAST AMONG THOSE IS 
THE LORD'S SUPPER. 

Christ has placed this sacred feast within, and 
under the guardianship of his local churches, and no 
one who has not been duly initiated according to the 
appointment of Christ, can partake of the Supper 
without profaning the feast and eating and drinking 
unworthily, and thereby "eating and drinking 
damnation to himself" (1 Cor. xi).* By command- 
ing every disciple to partake of the Supper, he vir- 
tually commanded him to qualify himself to do so, 
by being baptized into His "body " — one of his local 
churches. 

From the above considerations we see that bap- 
tism, though not a condition of salvation, is far from 
being an unimportant or non-essential duty, since it 
is essential to our obedience to Christ, and essential 
to his public recognition by us as our Saviour and 
King — essential to membership in his church and 
citizenship in his kingdom — essential to our highest 
usefulness and happiness in this life, and to receiv- 
ing the highest reward and honor in the kingdom of 
His glory. 

An unwillingness to obey in the manner he has 
specified, and a willingness to accept a substitute, 
because suited to our "tastes, feelings, and con- 

*See Tract by the Author, entitled " What is it to Eat and to Drink 
Unworthily! " Price, 10 cents. 



Extract from Sermon. 217 

should be convincing proof that our 
hearts are not in subjection to the Anointed One; 
that we have not the spirit of Christ, and are none of 

his. 

1HE ADMINISTRATOR OF BAPTISM. 

The question is often asked, and it may be asked 
Try the reader, ' * To whom should I apply for 
Christian baptism \ " The question is an important 
one; since, if you are not baptized by the proper au- 
thority, let the act be what it may, the act is null and 
void. A foreigner seeking citizenship in this gov- 
ernment must apply to an officer of the government. 
and the one authorized to give him his papers. He 
may not apply to any officer, and certainly not to an 
officer of another government. "How. then, "you 
may ask, ' ; can I know the proper officer to admin- 
ister Christian baptism ? " It certainly is not by an 
examination of men and their credentials : but it is 
required of you to find a church that administers the 
-act which Christ commanded, and for the purpose 
:and to the subjects Christ requires, and that church 
will furnish the proper officer — for it is the church 
that administers the rite and not the officer, per se — 
he is but the hand, the servant of the church. The 
ordinances of baptism and the Supper were not in- 
trusted to the ministry to administer to whomsoever 
they deem qualified, but to the churches, to be ob- 
served by them "as they were delivered unto 
them." (1 Cor. xi:2.) Every common reader of 
the ^sew Testament can easilv decide between the 



218 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

different religious societies claiming to be churches of 
Christ, which one of them all administers baptism as 
here set forth ; for only one denomination does thus 
administer it. 

MISCELLANEOUS MATTER. 

From the overwhelming mass of proof submitted, 
every candid reader must conclude that immersion 
was the act Christ commanded, and the apostles and 
primitive churches observed. He can fully appre- 
ciate the statement of Prof. Moses Stuart (Pedobap- 
tist), tc I can not see how it is possible for any 
candid man who has examined the subject to deny 
this, ^ and he will concede that the strong assertion 
of Prof. Paine, D.D., of the Bangor Theological 
Seminary (Pedobaptist), is not too strong, viz., "Any 
scholar who denies that immersion was the baptism 
of the Christian church for thirteen centuries, betrays 
utter ignorance or sectarian blindness." This being 
the established and admitted fact, the following con- 
clusions inevitably follow: 

1. If Christ commanded his apostles to immerse 
professed believers for baptism, in or into the name 
of the Trinity, he certainly forbade them to sprinkle 
or pour a few drops of water upon their heads in his 
name. The commission is the express law for bap- 
tism, and is to be construed as any other law. It is 
a fundamental principle of interpreting law that the 
specification is the limit of the act. 

This maxim is as old as the Julian Code — 
" Specificatio, unius, exclusio alterius " — the speci- 



Extract from Sermon. 219 

fication of one thing is the prohibition of every other 
thing. 

If Christ specified immersion in water in his name, 
lie as positively forbade any other act, as sprinkling 
of water upon the subject in the name of the Trinity, 
which means by the authority of. It is a most dar- 
ing act for a Christian minister, in open violation of 
Christ's express command, to sprinkle and pour, and 
then solemnly declare before God and men that he 
does it by the authority of Christ! and by the au- 
thority of God the Father! and by the authority of 
the Holy Spirit! I would not do it for a thousand 
worlds!! And if it could be, worse to sprinkle 
an infant, a non-believer, when Christ specified a 
believer, thus positively and expressly forbidding 
the baptism of an infant, as well as sprinkling for 
baptism. 

This we are all justified in saying — and, if we are 
the friends of Jesus we are in duty bound to say — - 
that such a human substitution for the act Christ 
commanded is no baptism, and far worse than no 
baptism. 

But Dr. N. L. Rice (Old School), in his work on 
Baptism, asserts: 

2. The second fact, that where there is no scrip- 
tural baptism there can be no churches, no ministers, 
and no Christian ordinances. 

This, then, is the conclusion from which there is 
no escape; that Pedobaptist societies are not Chris- 
tian or evangelical churches in any sense, and their 
preachers, not being baptized, are not members of a 



220 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

church of Christ, and are not ordained, and are with- 
out the shadow of authority to baptize others, any 
more than any other unbaptized men. 

3. The third fact is that all who have received the 
office of "baptism" at their hands by any act, are 
before God unbaptized. This seems a hard sentence, 
but it is the fact, just as certainly as immersion was 
commanded by Christ, which no candid man will 
deny, and duty to the misled and faithfulness to the 
truth constrains me to say it. And it is a fact that 
not less than ten thousand a year, including ministers 
as well as members, acknowledge the force of it, and 
come to Baptists for Christian immersion. It is evi- 
dent, if Pedobaptist ministers are unbaptized them- 
selves, they can not administer valid immersions — can 
not give what they themselves do not possess. 

•i. But if Pedobaptist and Campbellite societies 
are not churches, because unbaptized, they have, as 
Dr. Rice says, no Lord's Supper; the rite they cele- 
brate not being that Supper, and, therefore, it is as 
wrong for any to partake of it as that ordinance, as 
it would for a company of unbaptized converts to 
presume to celebrate the Supper without a church and 
without baptism. No conscientious Baptist could 
desire, or would presume to participate in such a 
transaction. 

The fact of those societies being unbaptized — and 
they are as certainly as that baptizo means to dip in 
or under water, as all scholars agree that it does, and 
never to sprinkle — settles the whole question of in- 
tercommunion between the members of those socie- 



Extract from Sermon. 221 

ties and the Baptist churches, or the members of 
Baptist churches and those societies. Surely to one 
disposed to accept and to submit to the truth, noth- 
ing more need be said on Intercommunion between 
Pedobaptists and Baptists. 

5. But there is another thing the above facts 
should settle forever in the minds and conviction of 
all Baptists, viz., the question of 

"ALIEN IMMERSIONS." 

If Pedobaptist and Campbellite societies are not 
churches — and they are not if Christ commanded the 
immersion of professedly regenerated persons in 
water — they can no more administer valid baptism 
than they can a scriptural Lord's Supper; no more 
than could a Lodge of Masons or Odd-Fellows, if 
every member was a devout Christian. 

Dr. Rice says, what every Pedobaptist on earth will 
agree to, that a body of un baptized Christians is no 
church, and can not administer valid ordinances. 

Therefore the immersions of all those societies, not 
scriptural churches, are as null and void as their 
sprinklings would be, and they can no more be ac- 
cepted by Baptist churches. No rightly instructed 
Baptist church will receive the ordinances of un bap- 
tized societies as valid or scriptural. 

The Campbellites certainly immerse, but their im- 
mersions are no better than those of the Greeks or 
Roman Catholics, since they immerse for the self- 
same purpose, i. e., in order to secure the remission 
of sins, regeneration, and the blessing of salvation, 
as all know. 



222 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

The question, "What does baptism introduce the 
recipient into?" is an open question with some Bap- 
tists, and they are principally confined to the South 
and West. It is urged by these, contrary to the 
universal practice of the denomination, and their own 
practice, that baptism introduces into the kingdom 
only — after which, if the subject desires to unite with 
a local church, he applies upon his certificate of bap- 
tism, and, after examination, must be received, by a 
unanimous vote, into the church ! This feature of 
the question is purely theoretical as yet. In forty- 
six years of membership, in four different Baptist 
churches, in as many different States, I have never 
witnessed or heard of an addition on this wise, save 
some few who were irregularly baptized by army 
chaplains or ministers. In some places, towns and 
cities, all received into the church by baptism, or let- 
ter, since the last communion, just before the admin- 
istration of the Supper, are called forward by the 
pastor, and a charge delivered, and the right-hand of 
fellowship extended by the pastor, sometimes, and it 
should always be, followed by all the church. This 
is a purely formal act, not an ordinance, or the com- 
pletion of an ordinance — the persons having been 
previously received into the church by baptism or 
letter. If, to all these, the Articles of Faith and the 
church Covenant were read, and they were called 
upon to rise with the whole membership of the 
church, to indorse the faith, and to enter into cov- 
enant, the practice would be most commendable. 
This theory is grounded upon the assumption that 



Extract from Sermon. 223 

baptism is an ordinance of the kingdom, and not of 
the church, and, therefore, it inducts into the king- 
dom, and not into the church — " the kingdom being 
the vestibule of the church" (Gardner); but the 
kingdom, as we have seen (Chapter IV), has neither 
executive officers nor ordinances, and, therefore, the 
theory is groundless. The practical evil that is crop- 
ping out of the theory, in some quarters, to the great 
disturbance of the churches, is that ministers claim- 
ing to be officers of the kingdom are assuming the 
control of baptism, and baptizing whom they please, 
and where they please, whether in a Baptist Church 
as was the immersion of Dr. Weaver, of Louisville, 
Ky. , by Prof. Jas. P. Boyce, without consulting the 
church, — or fifty miles away. But the unscriptural- 
ness of this is evident from the fact that the or- 
dinances, both, or all, were delivered to the churches 
and not to the ministry; and ministers, therefore, 
have no more authority to administer baptism, to 
whom they please, and where they please, than to 
administer the Supper to whom and where they please. 
It is a presumptuous and unscriptural assumption of 
power that does not belong to them. Our churches 
should be admonished that >; Eternal vigilance is 
the price of their safety," in this regard, as well as 
others. 



CHAPTER X. 
J. B. JETER, D.D. 

Jeremiah B. Jeter was born in Bedford county, 
Virginia, July 18, 1S02. At the age of nineteen 
years he joined the church, and was baptized by 
Elder William Harris. 

As he came up from the water he delivered a 
speech to the congregation, and from that start he 
continued to preach all his life. His first set ser- 
mon was about twenty days after his baptism and 
in the same community. 

Dr. Jeter was exceptionally active throughout life, 
and the Lord blessed his ministry in the salvation of 
thousands of souls. During 'the first ten years of 
his ministry he baptized over a thousand converts. 
During the next fourteen years he was pastor of the 
First Baptist Church, Richmond, Va., and during 
that time he baptized nearly a thousand into its fel- 
lowship. At the close of this eminently successful 
pastorate he became pastor of the Second Baptist 
Church, St. Louis, Mo., and continued in that office 
for three years, baptizing one hundred and fifty 
converts. In 1852 he returned to Richmond, Ya., 
and became pastor of Grace-street Church, where 
within a few years he had increased the membership 
from 322 to over 600. Such was the uniform suc- 
cess which attended his ministry. 

(224) 




JEREMIAH BELL JETER. D.D. 



J. B. Jeter, D.D. 225 

It was about the year 1865 that he became editor 
of the Religious Herald. He continued in this work 
until death took him away. 

As an editor he has had few equals, and he suc- 
ceeded in making a great paper of the Religious 
Herald, which still stands with the very best papers 
published by Baptists, One of his editorials is pub- 
lished at the close of this sketch. It is a fair speci- 
men of numerous strong editorials that came from 
his ready pen. 

Dr. Jeter was a successful writer of books, In 
1837 he published the " Life of Rev. A. W. Clop- 
ton," and in 1845 he published "A Memoir of 
Mrs. Schuck, Missionary to China;" in 1850 he 
gave the world the ''Life of the Rev. Andrew 
Broaddus;" then followed, in 1854, " Campbellism 
Examined," which book showed him to be a skillful 
debater, and still later followed "Campbellism Re- 
examined," In 1858 he published "The Christian 
Mirror;" in 1871, "The Seal of Heaven," and, 
during the same year, he published " The Life of 
the Rev. Daniel Witt." 

Besides these eight books he published numerous 
tracts, speeches, sermons, etc. When we consider 
his constant work as preacher, and later as editor, 
we can appreciate the immense labor it took to pro- 
duce so many books. 

Dr. Jeter was present at the organization of the 
General Association of Virginia, and he lived to be 
the only survivor of the membership of that first 
meeting. He was the first missionary appointed by 

15 



226 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

the General Association, and he was ever afterward 
a warm friend of the work of the General Associa- 
tion, and perhaps no other man has had so much in- 
fluence in that body as he. 

Among those who were converted under his min- 
istry some have become prominent preachers. There 
are prominent among these Dr„ Garlick and Dr. 
P. S. Henson. Dr. Jeter has continued to live in 
these men. In his converts Dr. Jeter still moves 
and thinks and glorifies God. His works do follow 
him. 

He died Feb. 18, 1880, at the advanced age of 
seventy-eight years. He no doubt triumphantly 
joined that host that no man can number. 

"O, that with yonder sacred throng, 
We at his feet may fall ; 
We'll join the everlasting song, 
And crown him Lord of all." 



DISTINCTIVE BAPTIST PRINCIPLES. 

BY REV. J- B. JETER, D.D. 
INCIDENTAL POINTS PERTAINING TO CLOSE COMMUNION. 

We are often asked by persons, heartily accept- 
ing Baptist principles in the main, why the im- 
mersed members of Pedobaptist churches and the 
members of churches practicing immersion are not 
invited to commune in Baptist churches. We ad- 
mit, say they, that baptism is a prerequisite to com- 
munion; but these believers have been immersed, 
and some of them by duly qualified Baptist minis- 
ters — why, then, should they not be admitted to the 
Lord's table ? The question is important, and de- 
serving of candid consideration. 

Faith and baptism are conditions precedent of a 
participation of the Lord's supper; but they are not 
the only terms of admission to it. We have en- 
deavored to show that the supper is a feast within, 
and not without, a church, designed for all .its 
members, and only for its members, or for mem- 
bers of other churches maintaining the same terms 
of communion. The exercise of discipline and the 
privilege of communion are co-extensive. In the 
apostolic churches, none were permitted to com- 
mune who were not subject to ecclesiastical disci- 
pline. Paul, in the exercise of his apostolic author- 

(227) 



228 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

ity, required the church at Corinth to put away from 
among them the incestuous member; and afterward, 
when he furnished proofs of his repentance, to re- 
store him to their fellowship, 1 Cor. v. 1-5; 2 Cor. 
ii. 5-8. This transgressor was, for a time, excluded 
from a participation of the Lord's supper. 1 Cor. 
iv. 11. By common consent, this act of exclusion 
from a church is called excommunication ; that is r 
expulsion from communion. So thoroughly is this 
truth embedded in the popular mind, that commun- 
ion and church membership are expressions used in- 
terchangeably. A member of a Presbyterian or an 
Episcopal church is called a communicant of the 
church. 

Piety and baptism do not constitute one a mem- 
bei\of the Baptist church. He must, in order to be- 
come a member of it, seek admission into it, adopt 
its essential principles, and submit to its discipline. 
To continue a member of it, he must walk in the 
commandments and ordinances of the Lord, if not 
without blame, at least without gross and persistent 
departures from them. "Now we command you, 
brethren," said Paul to " the church of the Thessa- 
lonians, " "in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that 
walketh disorderly and not after the tradition which 
he received of us." 2 Thess. iii. 6. To walk "dis- 
orderly" is to live in vice, or in willful transgres- 
sion. By "tradition" the apostle meant the doc- 
trine or teaching which he and his associates had re- 
ceived from Christ and imparted to the Thessalo- 



Distinctive Baptist Principles. 229 

nians. To walk "disorderly" is, we judge, to 
walk "not after the tradition" received from the 
apostles. The latter phrase is explanatory of the 
former. No command can be more imperative than 
that laid on churches to withdraw from disorderly 
walkers, who respect not the teaching of the apos- 
tles. " We command you," said Paul and his com- 
panions, not in their own names, but " in the name 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw your- 
selves from every brother that Aval keth disorderly," 
&c. This withdrawal was to extend to "every 
brother " — rich or poor, high or low, kinsman or 
stranger — who walked "disorderly," that is, per- 
sistently pursuing a course contrary to the apostolic 
teaching. No plea of friendship, ignorance or ex- 
pediency can set aside this law. 

We must now inquire whether the connection of 
immersed believers with Pedobaptist churches, or 
with other religious bodies, deemed unsound in doc- 
trine or irregular in practice, is disorderly walking 
and contrary to apostolic teaching. In this argu- 
ment we must take for granted the truth of Baptist 
principles. Conceding that churches should be 
composed exclusively of immersed believers, and 
that communion at the Lord's table should be re- 
stricted to church members, is the course of Baptists 
in uniting with Pedobaptist churches, or with other 
bodies, not sound in faith and practice, orderly and 
according to apostolic " tradition ? " We think not. 
Their course is not in harmony with the admitted 
principles. They voluntarily withdraw themselves 



230 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith, 

from a church scripturally organized, and give their 
influence and labors to the support of principles 
which they admit to be false. In principles, they 
are Baptists; in profession and influence, they are 
Pedobaptists. Clearly it is their duty to support 
and disseminate the principles which they admit to 
be true. We believe, say they, that only believers 
are proper subjects of baptism, and nothing is bap- 
tism but immersion ; but their example is at war 
with their convictions. In short, they concede that 
Christ has established one order for the constitution 
of his church, and they, for convenience or respect- 
ability, or from indifference to his authority, follow 
another. Such a course could not have been pur- 
sued in the apostolic times without incurring the 
charge of walking "disorderly," and " not after the 
tradition " received by the Spirit of inspiration. 

It may be pleaded, in behalf of these inconsistent 
Baptists, that they are pursuing the course dictated 
by their consciences. We are not considering spe- 
cially what is their duty, but what is the duty of the 
churches in regard to them. We do not judge these 
irregular Baptists. We consider them in error; but 
what allowance is to be made for their lack of infor- 
mation, their temperaments, their associations, and 
their peculiar circumstances, we know not. Their 
Master will judge them. Let them have due respect 
for their conscientious convictions. These may 
govern their own conduct; but they are no guide 
for the churches. They should be controlled by the 
Scriptures, honestly and intelligently interpreted 



Distinctive Baptist Principles. 231 

and faithfully applied. If these teach that com- 
munion should be limited to churches, that churches 
should withdraw from all disorderly walkers, and 
that those walk disorderly who abandon churches 
scripturally constituted, to support those that are 
defective and irregular in their formation, then the 
duty of Baptist churches regarding these erring 
brethren is clear and imperative. 

It is a pity that all Christians cannot commune to- 
gether. We have no sympathy with those who be- 
lieve that divisions among churches are good. They 
are evil, and are fraught with incalculable mischiefs. 
It is certainly to be deplored that all Baptists cannot 
commune together, according to the inspired order. 
Their identity of principles, interests, and aims 
should draw them together; and we wish to address 
some remarks to Baptists unconnected with regular 
Baptist churches. 

There can be no union and communion between 
these parties without a yielding on one side or the 
other. The mountain must go to Mohammed, or 
Mohammed must come to the mountain. The de- 
nomination cannot yield its principles. They are 
grounded in its convictions, incorporated in its liter- 
ature, and are the bond of its union. No man nor 
set of men, no arguments nor influence, can sw T erve 
it from its long-cherished doctrines. The mountain 
cannot go to Mohammed. There can scarcely, how- 
ever, be any insuperable obstacle to the union of 
individual Baptists with Baptist churches. These 
irregular Baptists may deem it their privilege — they 



232 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

can hardly consider it their duty — to commune with 
Pedobaptists. There is no divine law requiring 
them to commune in churches whose baptisms they 
consider invalid. It is their duty to partake of the 
Lord's supper in the prescribed order; but surely 
there is neither precept nor example binding them 
to commune in Pedobaptist churches. Admitting, 
for the sake of the argument, that it is their right to 
do so, still they would violate no law, sacrifice no 
principle, and do no injury in declining to exercise 
it. Mohammed can come to the mountain. 

As matters stand in this country, a Baptist cannot 
commune, however much he may desire it, in both 
Baptist and Pedobaptist churches. He must make 
his election between them. Either he must unite 
with Pedobaptists, and give his example, influence 
and labors, indirectly, at least, to the support of 
pedobaptism, or he must join the Baptists and enlist 
his energies in support of their principles. It is 
strange that he should hesitate for a moment in 
making his choice. With Baptists he differs on a 
single point — the terms of admission to the Lord's 
table; from Pedobaptists he dissents on the condi- 
tions of church membership and on the subjects and 
act of Christian baptism — principles deeply affecting 
the form and prosperity of the churches. 

A Pedobaptist church is no home for a Baptist. 
Many years ago, we were conversing with a minis- 
ter of another denomination, a most fiery advocate 
of open communion. We said to him : " If I were 
a member of your church, holding the principles that 



Distinctive Bajjtist Principles. 233 

I do, and deeming it my duty to maintain and make 
proselytes to them, what would you do with me ? " 
He promptly replied : " We should expel you." 
tk That would be according to your discipline,*' said 
I; "but should I unite with a Baptist church, and 
propose to commune with you, would you admit me 
to your communion ? " He frankly answered: ;> It 
would seem to be inconsistent." 

The truth is, no earnest Baptist can long remain 
in a Pedobaptist church. It is only by ignoring his 
principles or keeping them in abeyance that he can 
be received into such a church. If he is intelli- 
gently convinced of their truth and importance, and 
deems it his duty — as undoubtedly he should — to 
disseminate them, he will soon find that he is an un- 
welcome member. The church will have no use for 
him, if he speaks in disparagement of infant bap- 
tism and pleads for the immersion of believers. 
They would excommunicate him, as a teacher of 
false doctrine and a disturber of the peace of the 
church. There is but one consistent course for a 
Baptist, and that is to be a member of a Baptist 
church, and labor, lovingly and faithfully, by all 
the means within his power, to defend and diffuse 
his principles. 



CHAPTER XL 
ELD. S. H. FORD, D.D., LL.D. 

S. H. Ford was born in Bristol, England, February 
19, 1819. He came with his parents to America 
when he was a child and the family settled in Mis- 
souri. His father was a preacher of ability, and 
soon after coming to Missouri he became pastor at 
Columbia, where he preached the gospel with good 
effect for several years. 

In early life S. H. Ford was converted and called 
into the ministry. He entered Bonne Femme Col- 
lege, where he graduated with distinction, and after- 
wards studied at the State University at Columbia, 
Mo. 

In his senior year at the University he was called 
to the care of the church at Jefferson City, Mo. Al- 
though he was only twenty-five years old, he was 
even then a great preacher. It was here he began a 
career which has not been equalled, in many respects, 
by any other man in America. He has been pastor 
in Memphis, Tenn., Louisville, Ky., and St. Louis, 
Mo. 

He was for several years editor of the Western 
Recorder, Louisville, Ky., and for near forty-six 
years he has been editor of Forces Christian Repos- 
itory. 

His career as editor, including his connection with. 
(234) 




H.FORD, D.D.,LL.D. 
In his 81st year. 



Bid. S. H. Ford, D.D., LL.D. 235 

the Western Recorder, has been longer than that of 
any other editor in America. Dr. J. R. Graves had 
been editor of the Tennessee Baptist for forty-nine 
years when he went home to Heaven, but S. H. Ford 
has been doing the work of editor for fifty years and 
is still wielding an able pen. 

Dr. Ford had much to do in founding William 
Jewell College, and he was the first man to sound 
the note of warning about the financial basis of rep- 
resentation in associations and conventions, and at 
one time he introduced an amendment to the Consti- 
tution of the Missouri General Association to do 
away with that unbaptistic clause which demands the 
payment of money before a church is entitled to ad- 
mission. 

He has written two valuable histories. His Eccle- 
siastical History and his Brief Baptist History are 
reliable, clear, and strong. His book on What Bap- 
tists Baptize For is the best book of the kind which 
is now on the market. But, perhaps, his greatest 
work is The Great Pyramids. This is a scientific 
work and manifests unusual ability. 

The best things he has written, however, have not 
been published in book form. His strong article on 
current topics in the Christian Repository shows him 
to be what he is : ready, strong, accurate. Although 
engaged frequently in heated discussions, he has 
never lost his balance, and, perhaps, no other man 
has been engaged so constantly in the discussion of 
current theological topics. Conservative, logical, 
safe, and honest, he has nearly always been found on 



236 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

the side of right and truth. No man has stood more 
constantly and tirelessly for Baptist principles. He 
has stood like a great stone wall against every 
attack on Orthodoxy. No other man has so thor- 
oughly exposed and answered this "Invisible, Uni- 
versal, Spiritual Church " theory as he. His discus- 
sion of that question, in part, is published at the 
close of this sketch, and the reader may judge for 
himself how thoroughly he has done his work. 

No sketch of Dr. Ford would be complete without 
mentioning his excellent helpmeet, Sallie Rochester 
Ford. She has written a number of books which 
have been widely circulated. Grace Truman has 
reached at least fifty thousand circulation and its in- 
fluence has been great — hundreds being converted 
to Baptist views by it, besides confirming the faith of 
many who were wavering. The Dreamer K s Blind 
Daughter, a beautiful story of John Bunyan's afflic- 
tions, and other works which have had a wide circu- 
lation, as well as her editorial work in the Repository, 
tell of her great life work. Dr. Ford would not 
have been the strong man he is if it had not been for 
the great woman he married and with whom he has 
lived for more than half a century. 

During the civil war Dr. Ford was elected a mem- 
ber of the Confederate Congress. His gift as an 
orator and his happy knowledge of human nature 
would have made him a power in politics, but like 
many other men, he sacrificed all of that for the 
privilege of fighting the good fight of faith in Prince 
Immanuel's army. 



Eld. S. H. Ford, D.D., LL.B. 237 

In his eighty-first year he is still at work, and he 
will die in the harness. 

There are many incidents in his remarkable life 
which would be of interest to relate here, but one 
of them will suffice: 

While he was pastor in St. Louis, forty years ago, 
he heard of a sick young man and he went to see 
him. He found him in a room located where the 
Repository is now published. He soon understood 
that the prospect of death was near, and at the 
request of the sick boy he wrote to his mother, who 
lived in New England, to come as soon as possible, 
stating that if she came at once she might get to St. 
Louis in time for the burial of her son. 

It was before the day of fast trains, and the trip 
had to be made by land and by steamboat. It would 
take at least three weeks for the letter to reach the 
mother and enable her to reach St- Louis. The 
prospect was that he would be dead and buried be- 
fore the mother's arrival. 

Meantime Dr. Ford talked with the young man 
about his soul and prayed with him, and the result 
was he became a happy believer in the Lord Jesus 
Christ. He soon had strength to ''arise and be 
baptized and ^figuratively) wash away his sins," and 
he, with Pastor Ford and a number of the brethren, 
went to a lake situated exactly where the great 
Union Depot now stands, for the purpose of being 
buried with Christ in baptism. 

Just as Dr. Ford pronounced the words: ; 'I bap- 
tize thee, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, 



238 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 



and of the Holy Ghost," and buried the body out of 
sight in the watery grave, a shout was heard on the 
shore of the lake, and the first sight that greeted the 
young convert's eyes was his mother, who threw her 
arms about his wet body, and said, " O, my son, I 
came to see you buried, but I was not expecting to 
-see you buried like this." She had arrived just in 
time to reach the baptizing. Perhaps there never 
was a more forcible illustration of the truth taught in 
baptism — death, burial, resurrection. 

The grand old man will soon pass over the river, 
but his work will endure. When he dies it can 
truthfully be said of him: "Blessed are the dead 
which die in the Lord, from henceforth; yea, saith 
the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and 
their works do follow them." — Rev. 14:13. 



THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH— ITS REAL 
MEANING. 

BY ELD. S. H. FORD, D.D., LL.D. 

There is no one word in Christian literature whose 
primary meaning is so fully agreed upon as the term 
translated church; and yet there is no word in that 
literature (not excepting Baptism) whose meaning 
has been so perverted and made the basis of subver- 
sive error. 

Ecclesia — from the Greek word exxaXiw to call to- 
gether or convene — simply means a public assembly 
or congregation. Any one reading the account of 
the Ephesians gathered in the theater — especially if 
the word had been rendered as it is when a gospel 
congregation is spoken of — will at once see the real 
meaning of ecclesia; as correctly and clearly as 
though he or she had consulted a pile of lexicons. 
We read (Acts 19:32): "Some therefore cried one 
thing and some another, for the (exxXeaia) assembly 
was divided." Suppose it had been rendered "for 
the church was divided " (a church of maddened 
idolators ! ), would this have been as correct as the 
translation of the same word "the church in thy 
house" or "tell it to the church?" Yes. It is the 
same word ; it has the same meaning and is in every 
other case rendered church in the versions of the 
New Testament. 

(239) 



240 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

But no elaborate proof of the meaning of this 
word translated church is necessary. That its pri- 
mary or literal meaning is an assembly, is undis- 
puted. And it should have been so rendered wher- 
ever it occurs — especially when Stephen said : ' ' This 
is he who was in the (ecclesia) assembly in the wil- 
derness," — not church in the wilderness. And also 
in the quotation from JPsalms 26:12 and 68:2: "In 
the midst of the church will I sing praises unto Thee. " 
In the version of the Old Testament the same word 
ecclesia occurs, and in our English version this is 
rendered "in the midst of the congregation." Why 
was it not rendered congregation in the New Testa- 
ment? The translators were forbidden to do so for 
a purpose. The revised version puts congregation in 
the margin, while the American revisers insisted on 
having it in the text. 

But, we repeat, it is settled that ecclesia means an 
assembly, and that a gospel church is a called out 
assembly of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. This 
description of a church is given in unmistakable 
language in the thirty-nine articles of the Church of 
England: "A church is an assembly of faithful 
men where the word of God is preached and the 
sacraments rightly administered." 

And now let it be remembered, that nowhere in 
God's word is such ecclesia (church) distinguished by 
any appellation distinguishing it as a universal or 
general or local church, except the place where it as- 
sembled. Thus is mention made of "all the churches 
of the Gentiles" (Rom. 16:4) which included nearly 






The Universal Church — Its Beat Meaning. 241 

all the churches then on earth, but they are not called 
the universal church to distinguish them from the 
one which Paul immediately mentions : "Greet the 
church which is in thy house." 

But while assembly is acknowledged to be the pri- 
mary or literal meaning of ecclesia the question oc- 
curs, has it other meanings ? Does it mean the 
aggregate of believers or the saints of all ages — "a 
universal, invisible assembly?" 

Let us calmly, in the light of Scripture and fact, 
examine and answer these questions. 

The language of that great philologist, William 
Carson, in regard to the meaning of the word bap- 
tize, will apply with double force to the meaning of 
the word church. He says : — 

"Parkhurst gives six meanings to the word 
ja-TiZw. I undertake to prove it has but one; yet he 
and 1 do not differ as to the primary meaning of this 
word. I blame him for giving different meanings 
when there is no real difference in the meanings of 
this word. He assigns it figurative meanings; I 
maintain that in figures there are no different mean- 
ings of the word. It is only a figurative application. 
The meaning of the word is always the same. Not 
that any one need to have a figurative application 
explained in any other way than by giving the proper 
meaning of the word." 

In other words, baptism has but one meaning. It 
always means dip. But it has figurative application, 
such as baptized in the Holy Spirit, in which fig- 
urative application there is a resemblance to an im- 

16 



"242 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

mersion. Now church has but one meaning — an 
assembly. But it has figurative applications, such as 
the "church of the first-born whose names are writ- 
ten in heaven," in which figurative application there 
is a resemblance to a church or called out assembly. 
It is not a church in fact, no more than the bestow- 
ment of the Holy Spirit was an immersion in fact. 
It is a figurative application of the word to an ideal 
gathering of the redeemed. 

This will appear more evident and edifying if we 
turn to the meaning of other words or things which 
are figuratively applied to the aggregate of believers 
and also to the ' ' whole number of the elect that have 
been or shall be gathered in one [assembly] un- 
der Christ" (London Confess, of Faith). They are 
-called — 

THE BRIDE THE LAMb's WIFE. 

« 

When John the Baptist was told of the increase of 
the Lord's disciples he answered : ' ' He that hath 
the bride is the bridegroom." Having direct refer- 
ence to those who believed on the Son and had ever- 
lasting life. Paul, addressing the Corinthians, 
wrote : " For I have espoused you to one husband 
that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.'' 
And then in Ephesians, where he uses the word 
church in its figurative application more than it is 
used in all the New Testament besides, he changes 
the figure abruptly (we may say) from a woman to 
an assembly. "Husbands, love your wives as 
Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it." 






The Universal Church— Its Eeal Meaning. 243 

He compares the redeemed to a wife, and then to 
an assembly, or church. He drops the personal 
figure, and says, ' ' that he might present it a glo- 
rious assembly without spot or wrinkle." The basis 
of these figures are the redeemed — an ideal bride, 
wife, assembly. 

And so in Rev. 19:7 : "Let us be glad and re- 
joice and give honor to Him, for the marriage of the 
Lamb is come and His wife has made herself 
ready." An ideal bride, as John A. Broadus called 
the invisible church, ' ' an ideal assembly of real 
Christians. " 

Now a bride, a wife, a virgin, each means a 
woman, and means nothing else. Literally, that is 
really, believers in the aggregate, or "the whole 
number of the elect," are not a bride, a wife, or a 
woman. They are individual persons. These terms 
have not two meanings, the one a woman, the other 
meaning the believers or the elect. No; it is sim- 
ply and plainly a figurative application of the word 
bride, just as is the figurative application of the word 
church. The believers in the aggregate, the elect of 
all ages, are no more a universal church than they 
are a universal bride, and making this figure a fact 
as Rome has done, using the term Mother Church, 
and representing the imaginary thought as she with 
personal individual attributes and actions, is a mon- 
strous error. But we have just as much right and 
warrant to call the redeemed the universal bride or 
wife as we have to call them the universal church. 
They are neither in fact, but only in figure. 



244 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 



THE REDEEMED ARE COMPARED TO A HOUSE. 

' i In whom ye also are builded for an habitation 
[dwelling house] of God through the Spirit." Eph. 
2:22. The imagery of a building or house runs 
through the New Testament Scriptures. 

Wherever our word edify is met with, the idea of 
a building is represented. And we venture the re- 
mark that "the aggregate of believers" and "the 
whole company of the elect " are more frequently 
represented as a building or house, than they are as 
an assembly, that is, church. But we know that a 
house is a material structure. The redeemed or 
believers are not a house in fact, they are only so by 
a figurative application of this word or thing. And 
to build a theory or draw a distinction, or teach a 
doctrine on the ground that " all believers "or " the 
elect" are called a "spiritual house " is a mischiev- 
ous perversion. 

We might go on to mention the many other figur- 
ative applications of liberal terms, to the redeemed. 
They are called a city, as in some respects they re- 
semble one, with its walls, its watchmen, its gates,, 
and its towers. 

They are called a garden, a flock, an army. But 
surely it need not be urged that they are in fact 
none of these. A universal garden, a universal 
flock, a universal army, or a universal house, or 
bride, is no more a figure of speech than is a uni- 
versal church — that is, a universal assembly. There 
is no such thing in fact. It is a figurative applica- 
tion. 



The Universal Church — Its Heal Meaning. 245 

It is frequently said the church is compared to a 
bride. We deny this, and challenge the production 
of a single instance where the church is compared to 
any of those objects to which the redeemed are 
likened. It is the saved who are compared to an 
assembly, or ideal church, and to a bride, and to a 
building, not the church or a church. But by a 
strange deception, (we might say) a mental strabis- 
mus, the redeemed are compared to an assembly, and 
then this figurative application of an assembly (as 
though it were literal) is made the basis of another 
figure of speech, as bride or house; that is, one 
highly-wrought metaphor is made the groundwork 
of another highly-wrought metaphor. We repeat 
it : God's redeemed are figuratively likened to an 
assembly, but that assembly is never compared to a 
bride or a wife or a house. It is the redeemed ones 
themselves that are so compared; and not one figure 
compared to another figure. 

As well might we take the metaphor of a lamb as 
figuratively applied to the Lord Jesus, and make 
this the basis of like figurative application of an- 
other. He is called the Lamb of God; but the 
Lamb is never called the door. He has these va- 
rious figurative names — the Lamb, the Lion, the 
Shepherd, the Vine. But to say that the Lamb is 
compared to a Lion, or a Vine, or a Door is like 
calling by a metaphor the redeemed a bride and 
then calling the bride an assembly or church, or a 
house, or a garden. It is Jesus personally who is 
figuratively, not really, a Lamb, a Door, a Vine, is 



246 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

Bread. It is the redeemed personally who are. figur- 
atively, not really, called a bride, a house, a church. 
And it is misleading as it is wrong to make the 
figure a fact and build a theory on the perversion. 

THE REDEEMED ARE CALLED CHRIST 's BODY. 

This image assumes the form or thought of a 
reality more frequently than any of the other collat- 
eral figures by which believers are pictured to the 
mind. 

This word, like all others, has but one literal or 
ground meaning — a material organized substance. 
But it has many figurative applications, which are 
called definitions. One of these is a reality as op- 
posed to representation, as "the shadows of things 
to come, but the body is Christ." 

Not that those shadows had a body — that is, a ma- 
terial substance by which a shadow was cast, but 
just as a shadow must have a substance to cause it, 
so Christ was the substance or cause of " the shad- 
ows of things to come," and as literally rendered 
"but the body is Christ." 

But especially is this word used to describe the re- 
deemed of all ages. We read in 1 Cor. 12 : " For 
as the body is one [that is, of course, the physical 
body] " and hath many members, and all the mem- 
bers of that one body being many are one body, so 
also Christ is one." 

Here is simply taught the oneness of Christ and 
His redeemed. The language is addressed to the 
members of the church of Corinth, "the sanctified 



The Universal Church — Its Reed Meaning. 24T 

in Christ Jesus. " They were in Him and are there- 
fore pictured as a complete body. But surely it is but 
a picture — a figurative application of the word body ; 
and stripped of its figurative language is simply this: 
"All believers are one with Christ." But not a real 
universal body, no more than a real universal church. 

The Apostle says : ''For by one Spirit we are all 
baptized into one body." But first the Spirit does 
not literally baptize the believer; and secondly, we 
cannot be literally immersed into a body, especially 
as it is a human, or real body, that is figured. 

The body of the Lord Jesus is at the right hand of 
God. That glorious body is distinct from anything 
else in the universe. No being can become an 
actual or real part of it. It is impossible. And 
yet the believer is said to be a member of "His 
body, His flesh, and His bones,*' and the redeemed 
are said to be a body of which He is (not the body 
itself), but the head. Surely any one who will ex- 
ercise the reasoning power God has given him will 
see and know that "the aggregate of believers," or 
"elect of all ages,'' are not a body, are not the 
Lord's Body — that there is no such a body as that 
in all God's universe; but it is a figurative applica- 
tion of the word body, just as it is the figurative ap- 
plication of the term bride, or building, or vineyard, 
or city, or flock, or church. 

The term mystical applied to body or church is 
also misleading. It is (to use an obsolete word) 
mystigogical. It properly means "obscure," and 
then unrevealed, and then emblematical or figurative. 
It is in this last sense that it is applied to the body 



248 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

of Christ. We speak of the mystical body of Christ, 
we do not (or cannot properly) mean the Lord's 
body really, but something else which His glorified 
hody represents. 80 that when we use, or see used, 
the term mystical before body or bride or church, 
let us at once understand that it is a supposed or 
figurative body — something that does not really 
exist at all — that is presented, but which is an illus- 
trative picture of the redeemed of all ages. 

In conclusion we hope to be pardoned for repeat- 
ing with all the emphasis we can give, that : 

A "church," like a body, is a literal, actual 
thing. It is a real assembly. To speak of a uni- 
versal assembly or church — having the supposed 
functions or "notes" of it, as of a real literal 
church, is just as illogical and as unwarranted as to 
speak of the universal body having the supposed 
functions or "notes " of it as of a real literal body. 
Body when applied to the redeemed is a figure, not 
a reality. Church when applied to the redeemed is 
a figure, not a reality. There never has been in 
fact anything of the kind. A church is a company 
of baptized believers joined together for the service 
of God — a real, actual, veritable assembly, and noth- 
ing else is a church. 

In view of these facts, and of the mischievous 
errors into which the perversion of the meaning of 
church has led, surely when men of discrimination — 
teachers of the people — are speaking of the aggre- 
gate of believers, of all times and climes, and of all 
the elect of all ages, they should use these terms 
and not the misused words " Universal Church. " 



IS THERE A CATHOLIC OR UNIVERSAL 
CHURCH? 

As an appendix to the foregoing article we affirm 
that there is no such a thing in existence as a cath- 
olic — that is, universal, church. Church means 
always an assembly. It means nothing else. If 
the persons supposed to constitute it have never 
assembled it is not an assembly or church. The 
thing is absurd. There cannot be a meeting until 
persons meet. There cannot be a convention till 
persons convene or come together. There cannot 
be a church until (to coin a word) persons are 
churched, that is, assembled. There never was a 
universal assembly of professed Christians, or, as 
the expression is, the aggregate of believers on 
earth. 

The term is not found anywhere in God's word. 
The inspired apostles use no term that is its equiva- 
lent. It is foreign to the New Testament. It has 
no real meaning. 

The term is found in the so-called Apostle's 
creed. But while it is certain this was not com- 
posed until centuries after the apostolic age, it is 
also true that the word catholic was inserted in it 
long after it appeared, and change after change oc- 
curred in it till at length it assumed its present form, 
I believe in the Holy Catholic Church. 

The word is for the first time used, or found, in 
(249) 



250 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

the very questionable epistles of Ignatius. In his 
supposed epistle to the Smyrneans he says : " Wher- 
ever the bishop (pastor) shall be seen let the people 
also be, as where Jesus Christ is there is the catho- 
lic church." Here it is evident it is a real assembly, 
a local church, the one body with its pastor worship- 
ing at Smyrna, to which he refers. It was not a 
universal or supposed assembly, or the churches in 
Asia Minor, or the aggregate of believers; but the 
one real assembly or church. But it soon obtained 
a different meaning. The churches, as the apostles 
called them, were made or conceived to be one 
church — the church; and thus received the name 
catholic. Words govern things, and the word 
catholic has been a governing, a misleading word, 
prolific of soul-ruining error, and of terrible oppres- 
sion. 

The term catholic is affixed to some of the epis- 
tles, as Peter, John, James, and Jude. But no such 
word is found in any of the old manuscripts; and it 
is well known that the term was prefixed to them in 
the year 1549 by the famous French printer, Robert 
Stephens. It is rendered in King James' version 
"general" before these epistles; but is omitted in 
our revised version as unauthorized. KadoXuoq 
means universal. Catholic church means a univer- 
sal church. We repeat there is no such thing. 
And the fact that the Philadelphia Confession of 
Faith adopts this word gives it no weight. For 
that confession says in its 31st article : " We believe 
that laying on of hands with prayer upon baptized 



Is There a Catholic or Universal Church f 251 

believers as such is an ordinance of Christ, and 
ought to be submitted to by all such persons as are 
permitted to participate of the Lord's Supper." 
But Baptists never have been unanimous in regard 
to this. Danvers, shortly after the confession was 
issued, wrote a treatise in opposition to it. The Phil- 
adelphia Confession adopted it. But it has been 
almost universally abandoned. Indeed, Baptists 
have no authorized confessions. But though this 
London and Philadelphia Confession says, "The 
catholic church or universal church consists of the 
whole number of the elect, that have been, are, or 
shall be gathered into one in Christ," they affirm of 
these elect, that "they are called out of the world 
through the ministry of the word," and "Those 
Christ called He commanded to walk together as 
particular churches.'' The members of these partic- 
ular churches are saints by calling, u visibly mani- 
festing and evidencing in and by their profession," 
u and willingly consent to walk together according 
to the appointment of Christ." 

So that while, as the confession says, " The cath- 
olic or universal church — the elect that ever have 
been, are, or shall be only with respect to the eter- 
nal work of the spirit and truth of grace — may 
be called universal, these elect are commanded to 
walk in particular societies or churches, visibly 
manifesting their call by walking together in their 
professed subjection to the ordinances of the gos- 
pel." Thus it is. Catholic church is all the elect; 
the elect are called to particular churches in subjec- 



252 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

tion to the ordinances, and the only universality is 
"the internal work of the spirit " whose operation 
is as the viewless wind. 

What is there in this resembling a positive, a real, 
a veritable universal church ? — an assembly which 
never assembled? It is the "baseless fabric of a 
vision." 

[Published in Christian Repository, September, 
1899.] 




J. M. PENDLETON, D.D. 



CHAPTER XII. 
ELD. J. M. PENDLETON, D.D. 

James Madison Pendleton was born at Twyman's 
Store, Spottsylvania county, Virginia, November 20, 
1811. His father was an admirer of President Mad- 
ison, hence the middle name, Madison. 

In the autumn of 1812 his father moved to Chris 
tian county, Kentucky. James was just one year old 
the day his father reached the neighborhood which 
was to be his future home. 

James Pendleton's educational advantages in youth 
were limited, but notwithstanding his poor opportuni- 
ties he became a most accurate Latin and Greek 
scholar, and his ability to write and speak pure Eng- 
lish was marked. Few men have ever lived who 
could express themselves so clearly and forcibly 
as he. 

The first school he attended was in a little log 
house in the neighborhood, with his father as teacher. 
His father was well educated for his day, but his 
education would now be considered entirely too lim- 
ited for a school teacher. Pendleton, in his book, 
1 ' Reminiscences of a Long Life, " has given the fol- 
lowing description of the school house and the 
school : 

"It was built of rough logs, the chinks between 
which were imperfectly filled and daubed with red 

(253) 



254 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

clay. There were no windows worthy of the name, 
but parts of logs were cut out to let in the light, and 
panes of glass were so adjusted as to keep out the 
cold. The floor was of dirt, and the chimney had a 
fireplace six feet wide and four feet deep. The 
benches were made of slabs, and those were the out- 
side of sawed logs. There were no backs to the 
benches, and everything seemed to be so arranged 
as to keep the feet of small children from reaching 
the floor. This, though not so designed, was the re- 
finement of cruelty. Not less than six hours a day 
were spent in school, and during that time the small 
children had no support for their backs and feet. I 
know of no epithet that can describe the injustice of 
this arrangement, and will say no more about it. 

' ' 1 think I must have been nine or ten years old 
when I first went to school, though I had learned a 
little at home. I was required to devote especial at- 
tention to spelling and reading. Noah Webster's 
4 Spelling Book ' was used, and when I got as far as 
' Baker ' I thought my progress considerable, but 
when at the end of the book I was able to spell and 
define from memory, 'Ail, to be troubled, ' and 'Ale, 
malt liquor,' I supposed myself very near the farthest 
limit of scholarship. The course of reading em- 
braced 'Murray's Introduction to the English 
Reader, ' the ' Header ' itself, and then the ' Sequel ' 
to it. No other book was read in the school. In 
due time Arithmetic, as far as the 'Eule of Three,' 
' Geography and Grammar ' were studied, but not 
thoroughly. My studies were often interrupted, 



Eld, J. M. Pendleton, D.B. 255 

for, when necessity required, I bad to work on the 
farm. " 

This was the school and this was the manner in 
which J. M. Pendleton made his start ! 

James had the care for some time, David-like, of 
his father's sheep. One of the ewes died, leaving a 
lamb which was given to him, and he raised it, 
"feeding it milk-with a spoon." When it grew up 
he sold it, and with the money bought a Bible, the 
first purchase of any kind he ever made. This was 
only an incident, but it looks like a prophecy of the 
future life of the man. 

From earliest childhood he was taught to believe 
as true the statements of the Bible. He states in his 
Reminiscences that he never doubted in his life any 
of the fundamental doctrines of the Bible. Besides 
this, there never was a time in his memory, before 
his conversion, that he did not fully intend to some 
day become a Christian. He fully resolved, at the 
age of fifteen years, to seek the salvation of his soul. 
His idea of salvation was to escape Hell. It never 
occurred to him that salvation was from Sin, not 
from Hell. The sense of his sins became more and 
more acute until he saw he was too great a sinner to 
make amends for what he had done. He plainly 
saw that he must have help or he would be lost. He 
then resolved to do his best and ask the Lord to 
supply his deficiency. The sense of his wickedness 
grew on him, and from reading the Bible he found 
that it would be just and right for God to refuse to 
save him and to let him perish in Hell. He could 



256 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

not understand how God could justly save him. He 
did not want to be saved at the expense of justice. 
How then could he be saved \ Was there any way 
by which he could satisfy justice \ Here I will use 
his own words : 

' ' While in this state of mind I read a sermon by 
Rev. Samuel Davies from I. Cor. 1:22-24 : 'For the 
Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wis- 
dom ; but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews 
a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness, ' 
etc. This sermon, delivered in 1759, which I have 
recently read, is an excellent one, and Mr. Davies 
was an admirable sermonizer. In the discourse now 
referred to I was specially impressed with his re- 
marks on the union of mercy and justice in the sal- 
vation of sinners through 'Christ crucified.' This 
was shown to be happily possible through the aton- 
ing death of Christ, whose obedience and blood 
' magnified the law and made it honorable. ' Hav- 
ing read this sermon I went into the forest to pray, 
and while kneeling by a tree I had new views of the 
way in which sinners could be saved. I saw that 
mercy could be exercised consistently with justice 
through Jesus Christ. I felt a lightness of heart to 
which 1 had been a stranger for about two years. 
Strange to say, the joy I felt was not on my personal 
account. I was glad that other sinners could be 
saved, but did not think of myself as a saved sinner. 
I knew faith in Christ was indispensable to salvation, 
but I ignorantly thought that to believe in Christ was 
to believe myself a Christian." 



Eld, J. M. Pendleton, D.D. 257 

Converted ! Saved ! and that through the reading 
of a sermon ! What a power is the consecrated 
printed page ! Let writers of religious books take 
courage, and let the colporters and book agents mag- 
nify their office. J. M. Pendleton was converted by 
the reading of a sermon ! If a soul is converted by 
the reading of one of the sermons in this book the 
author will be well paid for his work, for "there is 
joy in the presence of the angels over one sinner that 
repenteth. ' ' 

On the second Sunday in April, 1829, at the age of 
eighteen years, he united with the Bethel Church, 
Christian county, Kentucky, and on the 14th day of 
the same month was baptized in the creek near the 
meeting house by Eld. Jno. S. Willson. Thus he be- 
gan his Christian life by submitting to the "beauti- 
ful ordinance of baptism, which commemorates the 
burial and resurrection of Christ, symbolizes the be- 
liever's death to sin and his rising to a new life, 
while it anticipates the resurrection of the saints at 
the last day." 

In February, 1830, at the age of nineteen years, 
he was licensed to preach by Bethel Church. His 
first efforts were miserable failures. He tried to 
teach a country school, and was asked to give it up 
by the directors, and he quit teaching and went home. 

He attempted to preach his first sermon at West 
Union Church, in Christian county, near the line of 
Trigg county, Ky. He made a failure, and was ad- 
vised by good brethren to give it up and quit trying. 
His own account of his first efforts is as follows : 

17 



"258 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

" During the years 1831 and 1832 I accompanied 
different ministers on their preaching excursions. 
Sometimes they gave me an encouraging word, and 
at other times what they said was not complimen- 
tary. One of them, in referring to my attempts to 
preach, said : ' You certainly could do better if you 
would try.' Another said : ' You are scarcely earn- 
ing your salt. ' The language of the third brother 
was : ' You say some pretty good things, but your 
preaching is neither adapted to comfort the saint nor 
•alarm the sinner.' 

"Of course those good men, now in heaven, did 
.not know how depressing the effect of their words 
was, and how my spirit was crushed." 

This was the start of J. M. Pendleton as a 
preacher. But he became the strongest preacher 
and writer, in some respects, that the Baptist de- 
nomination has produced, and he lives on after he is 
dead. 

In 1831 he sought a higher education. He en- 
tered a private school at Russellville, Ky., and 
studied under Rev. Robert T. Anderson. He made 
a special effort to become proficient in Latin and 
Greek. He was kindly assisted by the brethren 
and sisters in Russellville as to his board, and by 
their assistance was enabled to spend ten months 
under so able a teacher as Anderson. 

In 1833 he became a student in an academy at 
Hopkinsville, Ky. , and prosecuted his studies under 
James D. Rumsey, who was a fine classical scholar. 
.During this year he was pastor of Bethel church for 



Eld. J. M. Pendleton, D.D. 259 

half time at a salary of one hundred dollars a year, 
and he also preached for the Hopkinsville church for 
half time at a salary of one hundred dollars a year. 
This enabled him to pay his board and buy his 
books and pay tuition and keep himself well clothed 
^vhile he sought a higher education. 

While in this situation he preached every Sunday 
and two Saturdays in the month, making ten ser- 
mons a month, and recited his lessons five days in 
the week. It was more work than any man ought 
to do, but out of such conditions come great men. 
During the first year at Hopkinsville he was or- 
dained to the full work of a gospel preacher. It 
was on November 2, 1833. 

After spending three years in school at Hopkins- 
ville, during which time he preached every Sunday, 
he was called, in 1836, to the care of the church in 
Bowling Green, Ky. He began his labors in Bow- 
ling Green, Jan. 1, 1837, and continued as pastor 
for twenty years, with the exception of a few months 
that he preached in Russell ville, Ky. His salary 
for a number of years in Bowling Green was four 
hundred dollars a year, and that was the largest 
salary paid to any preacher in all that part of the 
State. 

His labors in Bowling Green were blessed in the 
conversion of souls, and the church became one of the 
strongest, and continues to be one of the strongest, 
churches in the South. While in this pastorate he 
had the assistance of the celebrated J. R. Graves in 
.a protracted meeting which stirred the whole town 



260 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

and resulted in seventy-five additions to the church 
by baptism. At this meeting a friendship began 
between Pendleton and Graves which lasted as long 
as they lived. Pendleton became a regular contrib- 
utor of the Tennessee Baptist, and thus began his 
career as newspaper and book writer. 

Dr. Pendleton was in the organization of the first 
General Association of Kentucky in October, 183T, 
and was made one of the secretaries of the body. 

He was married on March 13, 1838, to Miss Cath- 
erine S. Garnett, and was permitted to live with this 
excellent woman for over fifty years, and she sur- 
vived him. Their devotion to each other was beau- 
tiful. 

The other pastorates held by Dr. Pendleton were 
for five years in Hamilton, Ohio, and for eighteen 
years in Upland, Penn. He also preached two or 
three years in Murfreesboro, Tenn. In every pas- 
torate his work was successful and he gave eminent 
satisfaction to his people, unless it was at Hamilton, 
Ohio, which, probably, was a comparative failure. 

Dr. Pendleton is well known as a Landmark Bap- 
tist — some even charge him with being the father of 
Landmarkism, but that is not true, since Landmark- 
ism is as old as the Baptists, although it was not 
named until Pendleton wrote his book on "An Old 
Landmark Reset." His influence was widely felt, 
and but few men have made a more lasting or more 
wholesome impression on the Baptists than he. 

Dr. Pendleton was a great writer, and he states 
that he used the greatest care in whatever he wrote 



Eld. J. M. Pendleton. D.D. 261 

and that he never revised any of his manuscripts. 
He says : " I may have carried this thing to a greater 
length than most writers, for I have written nothing 
a second time. All my books have been written 
once and then printed." This constant care in com- 
position made him a powerful writer — a model for 
simplicity and force. 

During the years, beginning with January, 1S57. 
just preceding the civil war, he was Professor of The- 
ology in Union University, now located at Jackson, 
Tenn., and known as the Southwestern Baptist Uni- 
versity. This great school was then located at Mur- 
freesboro, Tenn. While he was teaching theology 
in the school he served the Murfreesboro church as 
pastor. 

The war drove him to the North, as he was a 
strong Union man. He was not an Abolitionist, but 
he was an Emancipationist. The difference between 
an Abolitionist and an Emancipationist was that the 
Abolitionist was in favor of setting the negroes 
free at once, while the Emancipationist favored a 
system that would gradually free the negroes. This 
would avoid revolution and give the people time to 
adjust themselves to the great change. But his 
views were hateful to the Southern people and it was 
not safe for him to remain in Tennessee, and he 
therefore made his way to the North and that led to 
his pastorates in Ohio and at Upland, Penn. 

Pendleton was not noted as a revivalist. He was 
a great teacher — a seed sower, while other men 
reaped where he had sown. Yet he was blessed 



262 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

with the conversion of hundreds of souls under hisr 
preaching, and a few times he held great protracted 
meetings. 

The most notable revival under his ministry was 
in Upland, Penn. This meeting lasted two months^ 
he preached every night in the week except Saturday 
night, and for nine Sundays in succession there was- 
baptizing in that church and there were two hundred 
additions to the church. 

At the age of seventy-one years he resigned the 
care of the Upland church. During the last year of 
his ministry there, with no ministerial assistance, he 
baptized over forty converts. This fact teaches u» 
that an old man may be an effective preacher and 
pastor and that long pastorates are generally the 
best. 

During his stay at Upland he did most of his 
work as the author of Denominational books. He 
also served on the Committee of Publications of the 
American Baptist Publication Society, and it was 
his duty to read the manuscripts submitted to the 
Society for publication and decide whether the man- 
uscript was worth publishing. This work required a 
great deal of his time. He says, in his Reminiscences ,. 
that, "I can safely say that I read ten thousand 
pages of manuscript, and I often wished that some 
persons could write more legibly." 

We are indebted to Dr. Pendleton for the follow- 
ing excellent books : "An Old Landmark Reset, " 
which has reached a circulation of about sixty thou- 
sand copies. It is a small pamphlet and is pub- 



Eld. J. M. Pendleton, D.D. 263 

lished at the close of this sketch. " Three Reasons 
Why I Am a Baptist " which has reached a circula- 
tion of about fifty thousand copies. "Church Man- 
ual" has become a standard Baptist work, and 
not less than fifty thousand have been sold. "Dis- 
tinctive Baptist Doctrines" has reached a good cir- 
culation, though not so large as it deserves. "Chris- 
tian Doctrines or a Compe?idium of Theology" is 
a most valuable book and has had a wide circulation 
and is still selling well. He lived to see eleven 
thousand copies circulated, and since his death as 
many more have been sold. In 1883 he wrote a 
brief commentary on the New Testament, beginning 
with Acts. Dr. Geo. TV. Clark wrote a brief com- 
mentary on the Gospels, and the works of the two 
were published in one volume by the Publication 
Society under the title of " Brief Notes on the New 
Testament." This is a very helpful book for Bible 
students. "'The Atonement of Christ" was written 
in 1885 and has had only a small circulation, but it 
is a strong book and well worth reading. In 1886- 
the Publication Society issued his "Notes on Ser- 
moiw," which in fact are well arranged short ser- 
mons. This book has had as wide a circulation as 
such books usually have. 

After his resignation at Upland he came South, 
and, after visiting in Bowling Green, Ky., and at Aus- 
tin, Tex., and in Nashville, Tenn., and then back to 
Upland, Penn., he settled for the remainder of his 
days at Bowling Green, where he wrote, just three 
months before his death, his "Reminiscences of a 



264 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

Long Life,'" which was published by the Baptist 
Book Concern. During this time of visiting among 
his children at the places mentioned, he wrote con- 
stantly for the Baptist periodicals. He was never 
idle. 

In Bowling Green, Ky. , he was taken sick, and 
the doctors pronounced his sickness unto death. He 
talked of death calmly. Some of his death bed tes- 
timony is worth preserving. 

He said: "I just expect to go into eternity, saying, 
Lord, here I am, a poor, weak, sinful creature, hav- 
ing no claim, and the only hope of being saved is 
that Jesus Christ died in the place of sinners." 
Again: "I believe what I did sixty years ago, just 
exactly." " My prayers have been that my descend- 
ants to the remotest generations may be found among 
the servants of God." "You may say that 1 have 
never had the first regret that I devoted myself to 
the ministry." "My object has been to be an ac- 
complished debater, claiming nothing unjust, yield- 
ing to nothing unjust." 

On the fourth day of March, 1891, he closed his 
eyes in death, in his eighty- first year. He died as 
he had lived, a Landmark Baptist. He stated in his 
Reminiscences, page 104, that he did not think his 
position on that question had ever been answered, 
and that he was of the same opinion in 1891, the 
year of his death, as he was in 1855, the time he 
wrote it. 

He was laid to rest in the cemetery at Bowling 
Green, Ky., March 6; Eld. T. T. Eaton, D.D., 



Eld. J. M. Pendleton, D.D. 265 

conducted the funeral exercises in the Baptist Church. 
4 ' Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death 
of his saints." (Ps. 116:15.) 

"O, sweet is the season of rest, 

When life's weary journey is done, 
When the blush spreads over its West, 
And the last lingering- rays of the sun. 

"Though dreary the empire of night, 
I soon shall emerge from its gloom, 
And see immortality's light 

Arise on the shades of the tomb." 



AN OLD LANDMARK RESET. 

OUGHT BAPTISTS TO INVITE PEDOBAPTISTS TO PREACH IN 
THEIR PULPITS ? 

BY J. M. PENDLETON, D.D. 

In the discussion of this question opinions which 
have originated from our feelings and partialities 
should, as far as possible, be discarded. An hon- 
est and an earnest desire to know the truth should 
gain ascendency of the heart; for then there will be 
a willingness to adopt the conclusions to which the 
truth leads. " Buy the truth and sell it not," is the 
language of reason as well as revelation. There is 
no advantage in error. So far from it, it is mis- 
chievous, hurtful, pernicious. A false principle in 
science operates injuriously until its unsoundness is 
detected. An error committed in laying the foun- 
dation of a government diffuses its influence through- 
out the superstructure reared on that foundation. 
Error can never be harmless, and even should it be 
apparently so, it is owing to the counteracting pres- 
ence and operation of truth. There is no truth so 
important as that which God has revealed in his 
word. All other truth yields to the superior value 
of truth divine. The injunction — " Buy the truth 
and sell it not " — is eminently wise. The truth is a 
jewel of such transcendent worth that it ought to be 

(266) 



An Old Landmark Reset. 267 

bought at any price and sold at no price. Let him 
who secures this jewel retain it. Let him not con- 
sider its alienation from him a possible thing. Let 
life be surrendered rather. 

The question, Ought Baptists to recognize Pedo- 
baptist preachers as gospel ministers ? must re- 
ceive either an affirmative or negative answer. It 
does not admit an ambiguous response. The truth 
is in the affirmative or negative. And the writer 
will aim to show that truth requires the question to 
be answered negatively. Some, perhaps, will say 
there is great uncharitableness in my object, and 
that nothing but bigotry could prompt me to attempt 
the execution of such an object. Others in their 
sudden astonishment will probably say, "He is be- 
side himself." And others still may exclaim, "He 
is throwing himself beyond the circumference of the 
sympathies of all evangelical denominations." "But 
none of these things move me." "With me it is a 
very small thing that I should be judged of man's 
judgment : he that judgeth me is the Lord." 

To present the subject as impressively as possible, 
and especially to propitiate Pedobaptists to a calm 
examination of it, I avail myself of some extracts 
from the celebrated letter of Dr. Griffin on "Open 
Communion."* Dr. G. was for many years the 
distinguished President of Williams College. No 
Pedobaptist Rabbi of New England had a more en- 
viable reputation. He died beloved and lamented. 
In his letter he savs : 



:: This letter may be seen in J. G. Fuller's work on Communion, pp. 
243-249. 



268 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

" I agree with the advocates for close communion 
in two points : 1. That baptism is the initiatory ordi- 
nance which introduces us into the visible church; 
of course, where there is no baptism there are no 
visible churches. 2. That we ought not to com- 
mune with those who are not baptized, and, of 
-course, are not church members, even if we regard 
them as Christians. Should a pious Quaker so far 
-depart from his principles as to wish to commune 
with me at the Lord's table, while he yet refused to 
be baptized, I could not receive him; because there 
is such a relationship established between the ordi- 
nances that I have no right to separate them; in 
other words, I have no right to send the sacred ele- 
ments out of the church. The only question then is, 
whether those associations of evangelical Christians 
that call themselves churches, and that practice 
sprinkling, are real churches of Christ; in other 
words, whether baptism by sprinkling is valid bap- 
tism. 

"If nothing but immersion is baptism, there is 
no visible church except among the Baptists. But 
certainly God has owned other associations of Chris- 
tians as churches. He has poured his Spirit out 
upon them in their assemblies, and what is more de- 
cisive, at the table of the Lord; and has communed 
with them, and built them up by means of that ordi- 
nance, which, were they not churches, it would be 
profanity to approach. 

"What is a church? It is a company of believ- 
ers, in covenant with God, essentially organized ac- 



An Old Landmark Reset. 269 

cording to the gospel, holding the essential doc- 
trines, and practicing the essential duties. If you 
demand more, you may not find a church on earth."" 

It is seen from the foregoing that Dr. Griffin 
fully admits that " where there is no baptism there 
are no visible churches." This is the belief of Bap- 
tists. Indeed, the declaration may be considered a 
scriptural axiom. We can reason from it. He 
says : "The only question then is, whether those 
associations of evangelical Christians that call them- 
selves churches, and that practice sprinkling, are 
real churches of Christ." This is the question, 
plain to those who wish to understand it, but Dr. G. 
gives it a simplifying touch, and makes it too plain 
to be misunderstood. He brings the whole matter 
into this narrow compass — "whether baptism by 
sprinkling is valid baptism." 

No one who deserves the name of Baptist will 
hesitate to answer, no. I use Dr. G.'s expression, 
fully aware of the solecism couched in the phrase, 
"baptism by sprinkling." It is as philologically 
objectionable as the phrase, immersion by sprink- 
ling. 

It is the universal belief of Baptists that the action 
of sprinkling or pouring, so far from being baptism, 
does not bear the remotest resemblance to it. They 
cannot imagine how any analogy can be detected 
even with the aid of a theological microscope. 
Robert Hall, who is considered a liberal Baptist, 
and whose argument for " mixed communion " is an 
ingenious web of magnificent sophistry, endorses 



270 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

immersion as the only baptismal action. He com- 
muned with Pedobaptists with the express under- 
standing that he believed them un baptized. And if 
he so regarded them every other Baptist certainly 
does. 

' ' The only question, " says Dr. Griffin, is, ' c whether 
baptism by sprinkling is valid baptism." It would 
be very easy to show that it is not, were this the 
time and place to enter into an investigation of the 
matter. However, this is unnecessary; for the ob- 
ject of the writer is not so much to convince Pedo- 
baptists that they are in error, as to fasten on Bap- 
tists the conviction that they ought not to counte- 
nance that error. 

Dr. Griffin concedes that if sjDrinkling is not 
baptism Pedobaptist organizations are not visible 
churches of Christ; for, says he, " where there is no 
baptism there are no visible churches." From this 
premise, laid down with admirable clearness and 
candor, every Baptist is irresistably and inevitably 
led to the conclusion that there are no visible 
churches of Christ among Pedobaptists. To show 
that I do not misconceive or misrepresent Dr. 
Griffin's view, I again quote the following: "If 
nothing but immersion is baptism, there is no visible 
church except among the Baptists." " Nothing but 
immersion is baptism," say the Baptists of Asia, 
Europe, Africa, and the isles of the sea, while in 
America, from Maine to California, the same decla- 
ration is made beside a thousand streams, filling the 
valleys with its delightful echoes, and making the 



An Old Landmark Reset. 271 

hills vocal with its triumphant reverberations. Bap- 
tists must, therefore. Dr. G. being judge, look alone 
among themselves for visible churches of Christ. 

The unwarranted substitution of sprinkling for 
baptism of itself invalidates the claim of Pedobap- 
tist societies to be considered churches of Christ. 
But there is another fact which renders that claim 
utterly worthless. It is the element of infant mem- 
bership in those societies. Why is the distinctive 
epithet Pedobaptist applied to them 1 Because they 
practice what is called infant baptism. They seem, 
in the judgment of Baptists, at least, to make a 
specific effort to subvert the foundation principles of 
Kew Testament church organization. They intro- 
duce unconscious infants into their churches falsely 
so-called — thus practically superseding the necessity 
of personal repentance, faith and regeneration in 
order to membership. If it were the object of 
Pedobaptists to thwart the purposes and the plan of 
Jesus Christ in reference to the organic structure of 
his churches, I cannot conceive how they could do 
so more effectually than by making infant member- 
ship the predominant element of their organizations. 
It is the predominant element. This arises from 
the well-known fact which secures an increase of 
population, namely, that there are more children 
than parents. How then can it come within the 
limits of the wildest possibility for a Pedobaptist 
society to be a church of Christ, when the infant 
enters more largely than the adult element into its 
composition \ True, the members of such a society 



272 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

say they are in favor of believers' baptism. This, 
however, is a mistake. It is transparent sophistry. 
For let the sprinkled infant become an adult and be- 
lieve on Jesus Christ — then when Baptists insist on 
the baptism of such a believer, behold Fedobaptists 
wish the sprinkling of the unconscious infant to be 
received instead of the baptism of the believer ! 
Yet, they say, they are in favor of the baptism of 
believers ! Greatly in favor of it, truly ! They 
allow the sprinkling of a babe to supersede the bap- 
tism of an accountable agent ! And they know, 
too, that if their principles should universally pre- 
vail, the baptism of believers would be banished 
from the world. It would become an obsolete 
thing. There would be only a historical knowledge 
of it. 

Pedobaptists, then, so far as an overwhelming 
majority of their subjects of baptism is concerned, 
have no baptism. They have improper subjects, 
even if the action were right. But the action is 
wrong. They sprinkle or pour water, refusing to 
do what Christ commanded. This remark applies 
to the great body of Pedobaptists. Some of them, 
it is true, will immerse rather than lose valuable ac- 
cessions to their societies. But the opposition to 
immersion is becoming very decided. May the day 
soon come when Pedobaptist societies shall univer- 
sally refuse to practice it. Then the parties in the 
baptismal controversy will stand in their proper 
places. 

If Pedobaptists fail to exemplify the precepts of 



An Old Landmark Beset 273 

the New Testament in reference to the subjects and 
the action of baptism, they have no churches among 
them. The j have their organizations, but they are 
not gospel organizations. It will be said that there 
are good, pious men among Fedobaptists. This is 
cheerfully conceded, but it proves nothing as to the 
evangelical nature of those organizations. There 
are good, pious men in Masonic Lodges, Bible Soci- 
eties, Temperance Societies, and Colonization Soci- 
eties; but Masonic Lodges, Bible Societies, Temper- 
ance Societies, and Colonization Societies are not 
churches of Christ. Nor are Pedobaptist societies. 
In this day of spurious liberality and false charity 
much is said about evangelical denominations and 
evangelical churches. What is an evangelical de- 
nomination^ A denomination whose faith and prac- 
tice correspond with the gospel. What is an evan- 
gelical church? A church formed according to the 
New Testament model. Pedobaptist denominations, 
therefore, are not evangelical. Pedobaptist churches, 
as they are called, are not evangelical. There is 
supposed to be a wonderful virtue in the epithet 
evangelical. It is used as a balm for many a wound, 
as a plaster for many a sore. Its application to 
a denomination is thought to bring the denomination 
at once within the pale of respectability and fellow- 
ship. It is used with an injurious latitude of mean- 
ing. It gives currency to many doctrines and prac- 
tices which deserve emphatic condemnation. ' c Evan- 
gelical Alliances," so called, may, for aught I know, 
have done some good work; but there is danger lest 

18 



274 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

they infuse greater vitality and energy into the 
errors of those who enter the co-partnership. The 
religious nomenclature of the age requires serious 
revision. It is high time to call things by names ex- 
pressive of their properties. The language of Ash- 
clod should not be heard within the precincts of 
Zion. Nor should the language of Zion be employed 
in describing what belongs to Ashdod. More, per- 
haps, is meant by "the form of sound words" than 
most persons imagine. But to return from this ap- 
parent digression. 

If Pedobaptist societies are not churches of Christ, 
whence do their ministers derive their authority to 
preach ? Is there any scriptural authority to preach 
which does not come through a church of Christ? 
And if Pedobaptist ministers are not in Christian 
churches, have they any right to preach ? That is to 
say, have they any authority according to the gospel f 
They are doubtless authorized by the forms and reg- 
ulations of their respective societies. But do they 
act under evangelical authority ? It is perfectly evi- 
dent to the writer that they do not. It would be 
strange indeed for them to act under a commission, 
some of the injunctions of which they utterly disre- 
gard. The ordinance of baptism in its action and 
subject they pervert. They change the order of the 
ascending Saviour's last commission, and administer 
what they call baptism to infants who give no proof 
of discipleship, and who are naturally incapable of 
going through the process of discipleship. Are we 
at liberty to bid those men "God speed' 1 and aid 



An Old Landmark Reset. 275 

them in deceiving the world, by acknowledging their 
societies as churches, and themselves as veritable 
gospel ministers, who invert the order established by 
the Head of the church ? 

Would Pedobaptists recognize as a minister of 
Christ a good man whom they consider unbaptized, 
and consequently disconnected from what they 
would term every " branch of the church ? " They 
would not. They would say to such a man, "We 
would not judge your heart — we do not deny your 
piety, etc., but we cannot countenance you as a 
preacher as long as you remain unbaptized and sus- 
tain no ecclesiastical relation. " This is in substance 
what they would say, and I ask if Baptists should 
not look on Pedobaptist ministers just as the latter 
would look on unbaptized men who might choose to 
go forth and preach ? If Pedobaptists are unwilling 
to recognize as ministers of the gospel men who, in 
their judgment, have never been baptized, why should 
Baptists be expected to do so ? Consistency, so far 
from requiring it, requires the very opposite. Pedo- 
baptists cannot reasonably complain of us, for in this 
we act on the principle which their practice sanc- 
tions. Believing their preachers unbaptized, we can- 
not with the shadow of propriety recognize them as 
gospel ministers. If Jesus Christ intended that his 
ministers should be the servants of the church — and 
have the sanction of the church in their work — who 
can be a minister of Christ, according to the gospel, 
without belonging to the church ? No one will say 
that a church can send forth a man to preach who 



276 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

does not belong to her body, and over whom she has 
no jurisdiction. The writer does not say there are 
not pious, devoted men in the Pedobaptist ministry, 
but he denies that they have scriptural authority to 
preach. He denies in reference to them just what 
they would deny in reference to a pious Quaker min- 
ister. The so-called baptism of a Pedobaptist 
preacher is no more authority for preaching than the 
no-baptism of a Quaker. The former is as evidently 
out of the church as the latter. It is as well to dis- 
card an ordinance altogether as to pervert and cari- 
cature it. Neither Pedobaptists nor Quakers have 
baptism among them, and "where there is no bap- 
tism there are no visible churches. 11 

Now, if Pedobaptist preachers do not belong to 
the church of Christ, they ought not to be recognized 
as ministers of Christ. But they are so recognized 
wherever Baptist ministers invite them to preach or 
exchange pulpits with them. As to calling on them 
to pray, it is a different matter; for men ought to 
pray whether they are in the church or not.* But 
they ought not to preach unless they have member- 
ship in the church of Christ. To this all will agree 
who have scriptural baptism, as well as those who 
substitute it for that which is no baptism. Baptists 
and Pedobaptists differ materially. Their views are 

* But to invite them into our pulpits to pray, is to recognize them before 
the world as gospel ministers, since custom consecrates the pulpit to ac- 
knowledged gospel ministers, and therefore, when we act with them in 
a ministerial capacity, speak of them as gospel ministers, or receive 
their acts as those of gospel ministers, we plainly and "more loudly 
than with trumpets," proclaim them gospel ministers, and consequently 
their societies as gospel churches— and if so why not commune with them? 
—J. R. Graves. 



An Old Landmark Beset. 277 

totally dissimilar as to the design of baptism, the 
elements that enter into the composition of a gospel 
church, the form of government, etc. These differ- 
ences are by no means non-essential; but a recogni- 
tion of Pedobaptist preachers as gospel ministers is 
a virtual proclamation of their non-essentiality. The 
people so understand it. They are ready to say that 
there can be no material differences between the 
views of ministers who exchange pulpits and per- 
form other acts of ministerial recognition. And thus 
the custom of exchanging pulpits, originating, as it 
probably did, in the excess of an unscriptural char- 
ity, has a tendency to obliterate the line of demarca- 
tion between truth and error. Many a man no 
doubt has become a Pedobaptist because Baptists 
have so acted as to make the impression that there is 
no great difference between them and their oppo- 
nents. Alas, that there are some Baptists whose dis- 
position to compromise with adversaries leads them 
to act as if they were not only ashamed of their dis- 
tinctive principles, but wished everybody else to be. 
1 am heartily ashamed of such Baptists. 

If it is not absurd to suppose such a thing, let it be 
supposed that there were persons in the apostolic 
times corresponding to modern Pedobaptists. Can 
any Baptists believe that Paul, beholding the prac- 
tices of such persons — seeing the sprinkling of in- 
fants substituted for the immersion of believers — 
would recognize the ministers of such sects as min- 
isters of Christ, acting according to the gospel ? 
Surely not. Paul would have protested against such 



278 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

a caricature of the Christian system. He would 
have said to such ministers, "Will ye not cease to 
pervert the right ways of the Lord ? " The great 
apostle would have done nothing that could have 
been construed into a connivance at error. And 
why should Baptists now ? 

We have reasons " to thank God and take cour- 
age " that our number in the United States is now 
over 4,000,000 members, and that it is constantly 
increasing. But would we not have been much 
more numerous than we are if we had had no more 
religious intercourse with Pedobaptists than in the 
days of the persecution in Yirginia and Massachu- 
setts ? There cannot be a rational doubt of it. All 
compromises with Pedobaptists have been disadvan- 
tageous to Baptists, and they will always be. These 
dishonorable compromises have ever involved an 
implied understanding that Baptists were not to 
preach the whole truth on the subject of baptism. 
The teachings of the New Testament on this subject 
are held in abeyance. No man, it is true, can preach 
the whole gospel and leave baptism out; but in these 
Union Meetings it is thought best to leave it out for 
the sake of harmonious co-operation. It is to be 
hoped that the day of these Union Meetings is 
passed away, never to return. It is time for it to be 
understood that Baptists and Pedobaptists can not 
"walk together," because they are not "agreed." 
The impossibility of " walking together " without 
agreement was recognized in the days of the 
prophets, and why should there be a vain effort to* 



An Old Landmark Beset. 279 

make an impossibility then a possibility now f Every 
such effort is unwise, and involves on the part of Bap- 
tists a sacrifice of principle. 

It is often said by Pedobaptists that Baptists act 
inconsistently in inviting their ministers to preach 
with them, while they fail to recognize them at the 
Lord's table. I acknowledge the inconsistency. It 
is a flagrant inconsistency. No one ought to deny 
it. Booth, in his ' ' Vindication of the Baptists from 
the charge of Bigotry in refusing to commune with 
Pedobaptists at the Lord's table," does not and can- 
not refute this charge of inconsistency. It defies 
refutation, and the only way to dispose of it is to 
take away the foundation on which it rests. Let 
Baptists cease to recognize Pedobaptist preachers as 
ministers of the gospel, by inviting them to preach, 
and the charge of inconsistency will be heard no 
more. 

Our refusal to commune with Pedobaptists grows 
out of the fact that they are unbaptized, and out of 
the church. We say they have no right to commune 
as unbaptized persons. Pedobaptists, however, have 
as much right to commune unbaptized as they have 
to preach unbaptized. That is to say, they have no 
right to do either. The Baptist argument on "Com- 
munion " possesses great power, but it is paralyzed 
whenever Pedobaptists can say, "You invite our 
ministers to your pulpits, but you do not invite us to 
commune with you." Let Baptists repudiate the in- 
consistency that most of them have been guilty of 
for half a century, and then their Defense of Close 



280 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

Communion will be perfectly triumphant. It will 
stand a tower of strength, against which Pedobap- 
tists will vainly turn their artillery. No Baptist 
who recognizes Pedobaptist preachers as ministers 
will ever write a consistent Treatise on Communion. 
It is high time for all our brethren to know this. 
Consistency requires that while we fail to invite 
Pedobaptists to the Lord's table, we should not main- 
tain ministerial intercourse with their preachers. 

And another thing follows: The official acts of 
Pedobaptist preachers have no validity in them. 
Their falsely so-called baptisms are a nullity — their 
ordinances are a nullity. Immersions administered 
by them ought to be repudiated by Baptists. How 
is it % Pedobaptist ministers are not in the visible 
kingdom of Christ. How then can they induct 
others into it by baptism ? Can they introduce 
others where they have not gone themselves ? Would 
it not be a violation of all governmental analogies to 
allow those to act as officers of a kingdom who are 
not citizens of that kingdom ? It may be argued 
that in case of necessity an irregular act is not an in- 
valid act. As to immersions by Pedobaptist preach- 
ers there is no necessity, and never was. There are 
Baptist ministers enough to administer baptism, and 
they love to do it. It is high time for those who 
ridicule immersion, and yet perform it rather than 
lose a valuable member, to be discountenanced. 
They deserve the contempt of all honorable men. 
They are willing, for selfish and sectarian purposes, 
to perform an act in the name of the Sacred Three, 



An Old Landmark Beset. 281 

and yet make light of that act ! Such men I leave 
in the hands of a merciful God. 

I have now attempted to establish the position 
that Baptists ought not to recognize Pedobaptist 
preachers as gospel ministers. Whether I have ac- 
complished m y object, I leave for others to say. In 
conclusion, I will notice some of the objections which 
will probably be urged against the view here pre- 
sented. Pedobaptists will say, This doctrine repels 
us from our " Baptist brethren. " The time has been 
when this would have been a recommendation of, 
rather than an objection to, the doctrine. In other 
•days repulsion from, was considered more desirable 
than attraction to, "Baptist brethren." The senti- 
ment was once fearfully prevalent that Baptists were 
more worthy of prison, fagots and death, than of 
pulpits and communion tables. What country has 
not witnessed their martyr-sufferings? What soil 
lias not been stained with their blood ? They have 
been persecuted by Rome Pagan and by Rome 
Papal; for the latter inherited all the cruelty of the 
former. Rome has ever found fire her most effectual 
argument. 

In the early part of the sixteenth century the 
light of Luther's Reformation began to dawn on 
Europe, and Baptists probably began to flatter them- 
selves that the days of their persecution were ended. 
But this was not so. Luther was not their friend — 
Zuinglius thought them worthy of death — and the 
true idea of religious liberty never penetrated Cal- 
vin's mind. These eminent Reformers were in sev- 



282 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

eral respects more nearly allied to Romanists than 
to Baptists. 

And who does not know that Protestant England 
has had a prominent agency in the work of persecu- 
tion ? Who does not remember the inhuman saying 
of Rogers at the burning of a Baptist ? k ' Burning 
alive," said he, "was no cruel death, but easy 
enough." 

It seems from testimony not to be disputed* that 
Edward Wightman was the last person " that suf- 
fered this cruel kind of death [burning] in England;, 
and it may be remarked that William Sawtre, the 
first that suffered in that manner for his religious 
opinions, was supposed to have denied infant bap- 
tism; so that this sect had the honor both of leading 
the way, and bringing up the rear of all the martyrs 
who were burnt alive in England, as well as that a 
great number of those who suffered this death for 
their religion, in the two hundred years between, 
were of this denomination." 

This is Pedobaptist testimony, and let it speak for 
itself. 

Who has not read the story of Baptist suffering in 
the Colony of Virginia before the Revolution ? 
There are persons now alive whose ancestors 
preached through prison grates in that renowned 
Commonwealth. And the sterile soil of Massachu- 
setts has been enriched with Baptist blood. Puri- 
tans shed it — men who braved the dangers of the 
deep that they might enjoy religious liberty. This 

*See the " Religious World Displayed," vol. 3, p. 66. By Rev. Robert 
Adam, Minister of the Church of England. 



An Old Landmark Beset. 283 

is perhaps the most paradoxical fact recorded in his- 
tory. The Revolution established the principle of 
religious liberty, and since then Baptists have so 
risen in the scale of respectability that sects, which 
once looked on them with disdain, now court alli- 
ance with them. Beware, Baptists, beware. Whip- 
ping and fining and imprisonment are not the only 
methods by which you can be injured. There is the 
embrace of apparent love which is the embrace of 
death. Error loves to ally itself with truth and the 
interests of truth suffer by every such alliance. 

It will probably be said the position of the author 
of this treatise is in conflict with the charity of the 
gospel. If so, i; it is a grievous fault." There is 
no term used more frequently than charity — there is 
none more strangely misunderstood. A man of 
charity is generally supposed to possess what are 
termed i; liberal principles," and those who have 
these liberal principles, in nine cases out of ten, 
have no fixed principles at all. •* Charity rejoiceth 
in the truth." That is a spurious charity which 
does not recognize truth as a jewel of priceless value. 
It is a misfortune that the severance of truth and 
charity has ever been considered a possible thing. 

True charity will prompt Baptists not to connive 
at the errors of Pedobaptists, but to protest perpet- 
ually against those errors. And this is done most 
effectually by a decided advocacy of the truth and an 
emphatic condemnation of whatever militates against 
it. How can Baptists utter a consistent, sensible, 
effective protest against the many errors of Pedo- 



"284 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

baptism if they recognize Pedobaptist preachers as 
gospel ministers ? It cannot be done. But a refu- 
sal to recognize them in this capacity is an impres- 
sive condemnation of their errors. True charity 
prompts this course. 

Some faint-hearted Baptists may say that if the 
sentiment advocated by the writer is made practical 
it will bring great unpopularity and odium on the 
Baptist denomination. This objection is scarcely 
worthy of consideration. The question refers not to 
unpopularity and odium, but to right and truth. 
What is right ? is the inquiry. What does a jealous 
maintenance of truth demand of us ? Popularity is 
a bauble, dependent for its existence on the capri- 
cious direction public opinion takes. Jesus our 
Saviour was unpopular. His doctrines were unpop- 
ular. The first Christians were unpopular. We 
shall have illustrious predecessors in unpopularity. 
And the advantage of our consistency will more 
than neutralize the disadvantages of unpopularity. 

Odium ! What Baptist is afraid of odium ? If 
our people are not yet familiarized with it they 
ought to be; for the very day Paul was taken a pris- 
oner to Rome our sect "was everywhere spoken 
against." There has been time enough and oppor- 
tunity enough from then until now to learn to bear 
odium patiently. We see the law of adaptation 
illustrated all around us. Light is adapted to the 
«ye— -sound to the ear — -birds to the air — fishes to 
the water and Baptists to odium. There is no cause 
of complaint. 



An Old Landmark Beset. 285- 

It will probably be said that the tendency of these 
views will be to interfere with the social relations of 
neighborhoods and communities. The writer thinks 
otherwise. Why should there be any rupture of 
social ties? There is no necessity for it. I will 
illustrate : The officers of Masonic lodges are not in- 
vited into Odd Fellows halls and vice versa. This 
is no interference with the social relations of the two 
orders. 

Episcopal preachers do not recognize the preach- 
ers of other denominations as gospel ministers, nor 
do I know that the social relations of neighborhoods 
are affected thereby. There is no good reason why 
they should be. I would have Baptists, as neigh- 
bors and citizens, to exemplify every social virtue; 
but let them not do that which will inevitably be 
construed into a connivance at what they deem ma- 
terial errors. The question of questions must be, 
What is right? And they must dare to do right, 
let consequences be as they may. 

Of Reformers, alias Campbell ites, I have said 
nothing, because, as they reject infant baptism, 
they cannot be placed in the same class with Pedo- 
baptists. Important arguments, conclusive against 
the latter, would be without force or pertinency in 
their application to the former. I take it for granted 
that ministerial and religious intercourse between 
Baptists and Campbellites would be utterly unjusti- 
fiable. They differ fundamentally in their views of 
repentance, faith, regeneration, justification, the in- 
fluence of the Holy Spirit, the design of baptism,, 



286 Pillars of Chihodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

etc., etc. They are not " agreed, " and they cannot 
walk together. An attempt to do so would involve 
deep hypocrisy and a culpable sacrifice of principle, 
If, for the sentiments presented in this treatise, 
the author should be stigmatized as a bigot, while 
the justice of the charge is positively denied, he is 
willing, if need be, to wear the stigma till death 
shall efface it. 

APPENDIX. 

The doctrine of the " Old Landmark " has been 
written against and repudiated by able men. If the 
many efforts that have been made to prove it false 
have been unsuccessful, the fact of itself furnishes 
prima facia evidence that it is true. This little 
treatise has certainly undergone a severe scrutiny. 
By some objectors its leading views have been em- 
phatically condemned; by others they have been 
virtually sanctioned, though the author's conclusions 
from those views have been disavowed. I ought, 
perhaps, to feel myself complimented that so many 
distinguished Doctors have considered the "Land- 
mark'* worthy of their consideration. Drs. Waller, 
Burrows, Cosssitt, Hill, Lynd and Everts have em- 
ployed their pens against it, while Prof. Farnam has 
had no small share in the discussion. I know of no 
gentleman more worthy than he of the title LL.D. 
Others have written against the "Landmark" to 
whom I shall not refer particularly, because their 
objections will be met in the response to the indi- 
viduals named, and because some of them have 
written over fictitious signatures. 



An Old Landmark Beset. 287 

It will be remembered that the " Landmark" was 
first published in the Tennessee Baptist, and when 
about to be issued in pamphlet form it was adver- 
tised with other productions under the caption of 
"New Issues." Nothing was meant by the phrase, 
" New Issues, " except new publications. I refer to 
this little matter that the reader may fully under- 
stand the allusions of Dr. Waller in the Western 
Recorder, September 20, 1854. Referring to the 
views presented in the " Landmark '' he says : 

"These views are something new under the sun. 
They are published as c New Issues.' They are not 
the sentiments of those Baptists who, in the dark 
days of Popery and persecution, are now regarded 
as the witnesses of the truth, when the whole world 
' wondered after the beast. ' The Baptists who, in 
England, when Presbyterianism had the ascendency, 
and who were sent to dungeons and to death be- 
cause they were Baptists, it is well known never 
taught such doctrine. Nor did the Baptists of New 
England, nor the Baptists of Virginia, when perse- 
cuted in every way that ingenuity could invent or 
malice could inflict, by Puritan and Episcopalian 
bigotry, assert these ' new issues. ' ' 

Dr. W. died in about one month after writing the 
foregoing. He never had an opportunity to explain 
some things which need explanation, and to enlarge 
on some points which certainly require amplification. 
It is useless now to conjecture what he would have 
written had he lived. There can be no reasonable 
doubt that the work of demolishing the "Land- 



288 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

mark " would have been committed chiefly to his 
hands. His success in that work would have been 
another matter. 

What are the "views" contained in the "Land- 
mark? " That Pedobaptist societies are not gospel 
churches — and that Baptists should not, therefore, 
recognize Pedobaptist preachers as gospel ministers. 
It is strange if these " views " were not entertained 
by Baptists "in the dark age of Popery." Were 
the opposite views entertained 2 Was it then be- 
lieved that the Pedobaptist societies were gospel 
churches ? Where is the evidence ? Were Pedo- 
baptist preachers then recognized as gospel minis- 
ters ? Where is the proof? Had Dr. W. lived he 
would no doubt have sought for the proof, but 
he would, I imagine, have sought in vain. 

It is stranger still if the English Baptists when 
" Presbyterianism had the ascendency*' and con- 
signed them "to dungeons and to death because 
they were Baptists, " were opposed to the views set 
forth in the " Landmark. '' Presbyterian preachers, 
be it known, had much to do in instigating the per- 
secution which drove Baptists into "dungeons, " 
etc., and did those Baptists recognize those preach- 
ers as gospel ministers ? Did they while musing in 
prison feel reconciled to their lot because members 
of 'gospel churches had decreed that lot ? Were 
their chains less galling because fastened on them 
by order of the members of a so-called evangelical 
church? When they were " sent to death because 
they were Baptists," (Dr. W. intimates no other 



An Old Landmark Reset. 289 

reason) did the fires burn less severely because they 
were evangelically kindled ? Did those Baptists 
say the men who have instigated this persecuting 
policy and deem us fit for the stake simply because 
we are Baptists, are gospel ministers, and it miti- 
gates the agonies of death to know that they are in- 
flicted with the approbation of the members of gos- 
pel churches ! I venture to say such views as these 
never alleviated the excruciating pains of a Baptist 
martyr. 

But it is strangest of it all if, when Baptists of New 
England and Virginia were i; persecuted in every 
way that ingenuity could invent or malice inflict, " 
they considered their persecutors members of gospel 
churches, and the most influential of them gospel 
ministers ! Can credulity itself believe this '? 

Did those Baptists in New England who were 
whipped until the blood ran from their lacerated 
backs to the ground say that it was all done in ac- 
cordance with the wishes of an evangelical church ? 
Dr. W.'s grandfather preached through the grates of 
a Virginia prison. i; Episcopalian bigotry " would 
not allow him to preach elsewhere, and was unwill- 
ing for him to preach there. Did that persecuted 
man of God look on Episcopalians as " a branch of 
the church of Christ % " No, he regarded the Epis- 
copal hierarchy as a part and parcel of Babylon the 
great. How could the persecuted Baptists of Vir- 
ginia recognize the "parsons" of the ic 01d Do- 
minion" as gospel ministers? To me it is incon- 
ceivable. 

19 



290 Pillars of Oi'thodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

Dr. Waller, to make out a strong case, insists 
that Baptists when suffering the most cruel persecu- 
tions have recognized Pedobaptist preachers as gos- 
pel ministers — have, so recognized them when those 
preachers have had a prominent agency in the work 
of persecution. I dissent emphatically from this 
view, but suppose I were to concede, for argument's 
sake, what Dr. W. contended for. "What then ? I 
would urge most strenuously that such a belief on 
the part of Baptists would have prevented all the 
persecutions they ever suffered from so-called evan- 
gelical Pedobaptists. 

Why were they persecuted by Pedobaptists ? Be- 
cause they could not conform to views and practices 
of Pedobaptists. They were punished for non-con- 
formity. Why could not they conform ? And why ? 
Because they did not consider Pedobaptist societies 
gospel churches, and did not recognize Pedobaptist 
preachers as gospel ministers. They saw not in 
Pedobaptist organizations the elements of which a 
New Testament church is composed. They saw in 
every such organization a departure from the teach- 
ings of Christ — a departure which they could not 
sanction, even though their blood was the price to 
be paid for their refusal to do so. But they could 
liave sanctioned anything they deemed evangelical — 
they could have fraternized with any preachers they 
considered set apart to the ministry according to the 
gospel. The very fact that Baptists have been per- 
secuted by Pedobaptists proves that there are mate- 
rial and fundamental differences between them. 



An Old Landmark Beset. 291 

Would the latter have persecuted the former for dif- 
ferences considered immaterial ? Would the former 
have submitted to the persecution of the latter for 
unimportant differences ! Surely not. They would 
have yielded all points of difference had they been 
•considered non-essential. On the other hand, the 
persecuted Baptists regarded the views and practices 
of the Fedobaptists so contrary to the gospel that 
conformity to those views and practices was looked 
upon as more fearful than stripes, imprisonment and 
death. Hence Baptist blood was poured forth like 
water. Hence the numerous martyr-fires that have 
burned so brightly in times past. Indeed, it may 
be said for substance, that Baptists have been per- 
secuted by Fedobaptists because they considered 
themselves and were considered by their persecutors 
■" Landmark " men. 

How to reconcile the quotation I have made from 
Dr. Waller with his article on the- " Reformation, " 
as published in the first volume of the Christian Re- 
pository, I do not know. In that article he says : 
" We have shown from the Scriptures, as interpreted 
by the Reformers themselves, that the Papism is 
neither the church nor a branch of the church." 
Nor is this all. He refers to the Lutheran, Presby- 
terian and Episcopal churches, so-called, as daugh- 
ters of the "mother of harlots," and argues that in 
the evidence of Baptists (that is, those holding Bap- 
tist views, though not always called Baptists), from 
the days of the Apostles, is illustrated the truth of 
the Saviour's declaration, "And the gates of hell 
shall not prevail against it," that is, the church. 



292 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

Again says Dr. W., "If the Romish church was 
the true church, then the founders of the Reformed 
churches were deposed and excommunicated; and if 
she was not, then they have no ministry, no ordi- 
nances, no ecclesiastical existence. If she was not 
the Church of Christ, then they are not the churches 
of Christ, themselves being witnesses." 

Let it be remembered that " the Papism is neither 
the church nor a branch of the church." Then it 
follows irresistibly from Dr. W. 's logic that "the 
Reformed Churches are not the churches of Christ." 
Aye, he says, "they have no ministry, no ordi- 
nances, no ECCLESIASTICAL EXISTENCE." 
This sentence is, to say the least, as sweeping and 
denunciatory of Pedobaptist organizations as any- 
thing in the "Landmark." How its author could 
have opposed the doctrine of the "Landmark" 
without retracting this sentence (and indeed the 
whole of his article on the "Reformation "), I pro- 
fess not to understand. If Pedobaptist societies 
have "no ministry," ought their preachers to be 
recognized as gospel ministers ? The question really 
amounts to this : Ought they to be recognized as 
being what they are not ? And the substance of 
this question is, Ought hypocrisy to be practiced ? 
which everybody will answer in the negative. If 
Pedobaptists have "no ordinances," are we to rec- 
ognize their ordinances, so-called, as gospel ordi- 
nances? Surely not. Again, if they have "no 
ecclesiastical existence," shall Baptists recognize 
their societies as churches of Christ — churches or- 



An Old Landmark Beset. 293 

ganized according to the gospel \ This would be 
absurd; for it would be recognizing as a fact a thing 
that has no existence. So much for Dr. Waller's 
opposition to the "Landmark. " * 

Dr. Burrows, pastor of the First Baptist Church, 
Richmond, Virginia, and editor of the Baptist ^Me- 
morial* notices the " Landmark'* in his paper of 
February, 1855. He is opposed to the doctrine it 
inculcates, because he says, " There is no necessary 
Scriptural connection between baptism and preach- 
ing. We shall adhere in this matter to the broad 
license given in our authorized standard, ' Let him 
that heareth say come.' *" 

When I saw this notice of the "Landmark" I 
proposed to Dr. B., through the Tennessee Baptist, 
a series of questions, to which he courteously re- 
sponded in the March number of his paper. The 
first five questions had reference to the Scriptural 
priority of baptism to preaching. Hence Dr. Bur- 
rows answers them together. He says: "To the 
first five we reply, that in all probability there were 
no unbaptized preachers in apostolic days. There 
was no controversy on the manner of baptism, and 
consequently all who united with the churches were 
immersed ; in the name of the Father and of the Son 
and of the Holy Spirit.* " 

If this is not an abandonment of the position that 
"there is no necessary Scriptural connection be- 

* I have considered it due to the interests of truth to make this refer- 
ence to the writings of Dr. WaUer. His very name is regarded by mul- 
titudes as a " tower of strength." I think in his article on the " Refor- 
mation " he appears as a " Landmark " Baptist. 



294 Pillars of OHhodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

tween baptism and preaching,-' I do not understand 
the force of language. If " preachers in apostolic 
days " were baptized — if " all who united with the 
churches were immersed " — what Scriptural author- 
ity have unbaptized men to preach now ? Must not 
the rule which governed then govern now ? Or are 
we left without rule ? There is a Scriptural connec- 
tion between baptism and preaching. Jesus was. 
baptized before he preached; and in this, as in other 
respects, he left us an example that we should fol- 
low his steps. I will not here enlarge on this topic, 
for I consider Dr. B. as having surrendered the 
point he first made. As to the expression, "Let 
him that heareth say come," it is difficult for me to 
attempt seriously to show that it contains no au- 
thority for an unbaptized man to preach. It has no 
more reference to preaching than it has to praying- 
or singing or shouting. Let the opposite view be 
taken, and it follows that when a wicked man, an 
impenitent sinner, hears, he must preach ! ' ' Let 
him [whether saint or sinner] that heareth say 
come. ' ' A wicked father may with propriety speak 
to his children of the "great salvation," but he 
must not become a preacher. Who will say that he 
ought ? 

One of my questions to Dr. B. was in these 
words: "Had there been Pedobaptist preachers in the 
apostolic age, would Paul have recognized them as 
gospel ministers ? " His answer to that : "If Paul 
did rejoice when wicked men preached the gospel 
'through envy and strife,' he would doubtless have 



An Old Landmark Beset. 29o 

rejoiced too to know that it was preached by a godly 
Pedobaptist, if such an anomaly had been known 
in his day." 

This answer does not fully meet the question. 
Paul's rejoicing that the gospel was preached was 
one thing — his recognizing those who preached it as 
gospel ministers was another thing; otherwise he 
must have recognized those " wicked men " who 
preached " through envy and strife " as gospel min- 
isters, which is absurd. 

Dr. B. says : "We cover the ground of the whole 
series as well as the last three questions by the fol- 
lowing lessons from the inspired word : ' And John 
said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy 
name, and he followed not us. But Jesus said, 
Forbid him not, for there is no man who shall do a 
miracle in my name that can lightly speak evil of 
me. For he that is not against us is on our part. ' 

' Some, indeed, preach Christ, even of envy and 
strife, and some also of good will. What then ? 
Notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or 
in truth, Christ is preached, and I therein do rejoice, 
yea, and will rejoice.' " 

And what have these Scriptures to do with the 
recognition of Pedobaptist preachers as gospel min- 
isters I Nothing, absolutely nothing. Dr. B. must 
concede this ; for he thinks a "Pedobaptist" would 
have been an ** anomaly " in the apostolic age. It 
would be well for the editor of the "Memorial," 
when he writes on this subject again, to inform his 
readers how what would have been an " anomaly " 



296 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

in the days of the apostles can be metamorphosed 
into a gospel minister in the present age. I think it 
will be generally admitted that though Dr. Burrows 
has made an attempt to remove the "Landmark" he 
has not succeeded. It still stands. 

Dr. Oossitt, a prominent Cumberland Presbyte- 
rian, and a Professor of Theology in the Cumberland 
University, Lebanon, Tennessee, has been pleased to 
employ his pen against the "Landmark." He at- 
tempts to show that a "rejection of Pedobaptist 
ministers and churches is inconsistent with the right 
of private judgment in matters of religious belief." " :: " 

I take pleasure in saying that, as a courteous con- 
troversialist, 1 know of no one who excels Dr. Cos- 
sitt. It need not be feared that a discussion will, on 
his part, degenerate into those personalities which 
are so offensive to good taste. I recognize him as an 
elevated and a refined gentleman. 

While I cheerfully say all this, and would by no 
means treat Dr. C. with disrespect, I shall occupy 
but little space in replying to him because the prop- 
osition he aims to establish is, as it seems to me, 
self-evidently untenable. How can a refusal to rec- 
ognize Pedobaptist preachers as gospel ministers, 
.and Pedobaptist societies as gospel churches, be "in- 
consistent with the right of private judgment in 
matters of religious belief?' 7 Inconsistent with 
the right of whose private judgment? That of Pedo- 
baptists? How so? They are left to think for them- 
selves. There is no interference with any right of 

-*.See Tennessee Baptist, February 17th and 34th, 1855. 



An Old Landmark Reset. 297 

private judgment or public action. Baptists have 
the right of private judgment as well as others, and 
if, in the exercise of that right, they come to the 
conclusion that they ought not to recognize Pedo- 
"baptist preachers as gospel ministers, must they not 
-act out their convictions? How can they as honest, 
Christian men do otherwise? They have the right 
of interpreting the Scriptures for themselves, and 
this right involves the kindred right of acting in ac- 
cordance with their interpretations. 

How the sentiment of the ''Landmark" is "in- 
consistent with the right of private judgment," &c, 
utterly defies my comprehension. If it interferes in 
the least with the right of private judgment in Bap- 
tists or Fedobaptists, it is to me strangely inconceiv- 
able. 

As to the effort of Dr. C. to construe my "repu- 
diating sentiment " (as he pleased to term it) into a 
persecution of Fedobaptists, I have only to say it is 
singular persecution! Do we persecute men by let- 
ting them alone ? O that the millions of Baptist 
martyrs had only been persecuted in this way — 
by being let alone ! Dr. C. does not consider him- 
self a persecutor of Unitarians, Universalists, etc., 
because he has no religious intercourse with them. 
And he is not. How then can he make me a perse- 
cutor because I do not recognize Pedobaptist preach- 
ers as gospel ministers? Will he say Unitarians, 
Universalists, etc. , are errorists ? So I say of Pres- 
byterians, Methodists, etc. I do not believe that the 
errors of Presbyterians, Methodists, etc., are so seri- 



298 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

ous as those of Unitarians, etc. There are gradua- 
tions in error. But as to the principle involved 
there is no difference. Dr. C. refuses to recognize a 
Unitarian preacher as a gospel minister. Why ? 
Because in the exercise of the rights of private 
judgment he decides that the errors of such a 
preacher require and justify the refusal. This is 
true of me in regard to Presbyterian preachers. Dr. 
C. remonstrates against this, but in so doing he only 
condemns in me what he allows in himself. And in 
condemning me he ought to take care lest he in- 
fringe on "the right of private judgment," of which 
he is so jealous. 

The truth is, there is no room for controversy be- 
tween Dr. C. and myself, except on the baptismal 
question. We both believe that baptism is a pre- 
requisite to membership in a visible church of Christ. 
We also believe that church membership is a pre- 
requisite to a scriptural consecration to the work of 
the ministry. Wherein, then, do we differ? As to 
the question, What is baptism ? and who are entitled 
to it ? With his views he supposes persons baptized 
and in the church whom I regard unbaptized and out of 
the church. He therefore considers those eligible to 
the ministry of the gospel who in my judgment are 
scripturally ineligible. The difference between us 
is about baptism, and as this is not the place for 
a discussion of this topic, I take a most respectful 
leave of Dr. Cossitt. 

Dr. Hill, editor of the Presbyterian Herald, Louis- 
ville, Ky., has expressed his opposition to the " Land- 






An Old Landmark Beset. 299 

mark." He admits, however, that the position ad- 
vocated is consistent with Baptist principles — that 
the logic is with what he terms the "Baptist High 
Church party'' — that the error of " Landmark" 
men is not in their conclusions, but in their prem- 
ises — the same premises which lead to close com- 
munion, etc. I can but be gratified that a gentleman 
of Dr. Hill's learning and intelligence makes these 
admissions. As I have addressed a letter to Dr. H., 
which will be found in Appendix Xo. 3, I say no 
more of him in this connection. 

Dr. Lynd, President of the Western Theological 
Institute, and one of the leading Baptist ministers of 
Kentucky, has identified himself with the opponents 
of the "Landmark." He has expressed his regret 
that the little treatise was ever written, and seems to 
think its author will regret it too. Dr. Lynd's de- 
cided opposition to the "Landmark" is very re- 
markable in view of the following facts : 

In the "Cross and Baptist Journal** of April 15, 
1836, he expresses himself thus: "I assume the 
position that Baptists and Fedobaptists differ on 
essential points, essential to the honor of Jesus 
Christ and the future prosperity of the churches. 
And I would have the community understand it. 
Have Baptists forgotten the ground which they 
occupy? Have they forgot that the difference in- 
volves the constitution and government of gospel 
churches ? " Again, " I have feared for some time 
that the union of Baptists with other denominations 
would prove to be an alliance of much ultimate 
evil." 



300 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

Who would have thought that after writing thus 
Dr. L. would oppose such a separation between Bap- 
tists and Pedobaptists as the "Landmark'' recom- 
mends ? But this is not all. 

In the Western Recorder of January 10, 1855, Dr. 
Lynd uses the following language: "The constitu- 
ents of a church, according to primitive model, are 
such persons as have been baptized upon a credible 
profession of repentance towards God, and faith in 
the Lord Jesus Christ." In the same paper of April 
25, 1855, he says : "Churches organized, according 
to primitive usage, are those in which the constitu- 
ents are immersed believers, called the saved and the 
sanctified. Ministers of the gospel were appointed 
by the churches, and recognized, fellowshipped, and 
set apart to full official authority, by the elders of the 
churches. " 

From this definition of a gospel church, it follows 
irresistibly that Pedobaptist societies are not gospel 
churches. They are not composed of " such persons 
as have been baptized upon a credible profession of 
repentance towards God, and faith in the Lord Jesus 
Christ." The " constituents " of these societies are 
not "immersed believers." From the premises of 
Dr. Lynd, as well as those of Dr. Waller, the con- 
clusion is inevitable that Pedobaptists can lay no 
valid claim to "ecclesiastical existence." This is 
the doctrine of the "Landmark," and why is it 
worse in me to publish it than in Drs. Lynd and 
Waller ? 

But, says Dr. L., "Ministers of the gospel were 



An Old Landmark Beset. 301 

appointed by the churches, " etc. The persons ap- 
pointed were of course members of the churches, or 
otherwise the churches would have no jurisdiction 
over them. If they were members of the churches, 
they were, according to Dr. L. 's definition of a 
church, "immersed believers." So be it. Then it. 
follows that in apostolic times none were appointed 
"ministers of the gospel" who were not church 
members, and consequently "immersed believers." 
And here the perplexing question arises : Can men 
now be ministers of the gospel who are not members 
of churches formed according to the gospel ? I say 
they cannot ; and, therefore, they ought not to be 
so recognized. This is the position of the "Land- 
mark." 

Some, however, have made a distinction between 
a minister of the gospel and a preacher of the gos- 
pel. They say a minister must belong to a gospel 
church, having been immersed on a profession of 
faith, but that a preacher does not of necessity be- 
long to a gospel church, and that immersion on 
a profession of faith is not a prerequisite to preach- 
ing. But can it be shown that unbaptized men — 
and consequently sustaining no church relation 
— -were, in primitive times, permitted to preach ? 
Was there a class of men analogous to modern 
Pedobaptist preachers who were not recognized as 
ministers of the gospel, but were considered preach- 
ers, and invited to preach, and allowed to immerse, 
though never immersed themselves ? The truth is, 
there is no scriptural authority for making a distinc- 



302 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

tion between a minister of the gospel and a preacher 
of the gospel. Paul speaks of himself as a " minis- 
ter'' and a "preacher,*' and sajs to Timothy, 
"Preach the word," and in the same chapter, 
"Make full proof of thy ministry." Dr. L. says 
that "ministers of the gospel were appointed by the 
churches." I ask if preachers preached without 
such appointment \ To suppose they did is an ab- 
surdity. We have only to read the Acts of the 
Apostles to see the priority of church-membership to 
preaching the gospel. 

After reading the preceding extracts from Dr. 
Lynd, the reader will be surprised to know that in 
the Western Recorder of May 16, 1855, he says: 

"I have never denied that Pedobaptist societies 
are churches, or that their elders are gospel minis- 
ters. I hope I never shall, be it orthodox or heter- 
odox." Dr. L. had lost his usual equanimity when 
he wrote this. For him to hope never to make a cer- 
tain denial, though it be heterodox not to make it, is 
doing injustice both to his head and heart. 

How Pedobaptist "elders" are "gospel minis- 
ters," when, in apostolic times, "ministers were ap- 
pointed by the churches," and the churches were 
composed of "immersed believers," is too much for 
mortal comprehension. I could as easily understand 
how two and four make twenty. Dr. L. , however, 
kindly prophesies in the Recorder of June 6, 1855, 
that when I shall have "taken a wider theological 
range" I will change my position. Alas, that so 
many take a "theological range" wider than the 









An Old Landmark Beset. 303 

!New Testament ! If I reason from premises that 
Dr. L. has laid down I must conclude that the doc- 
trine of the "Landmark'* is true; if I conclude 
that it is false, I must first repudiate his premises, 
and then take a "theological range'' beyond the 
limits of truth. From taking such a "range"' I 
must be excused. I protest most earnestly and sol- 
emnly against it.* 

Dr. Eyerts, pastor of the Walnut-street Baptist 
Church, Louisyille, Kentucky, has perhaps written 
at greater length against the " Old Landmark " than 
any other individual. His views may be seen in the 
Christian Repository for January, April and May, 
1355. In the January number Dr. E. thus ex- 
presses himself : "In its Scriptural and primary dis- 
tinction, a church is an assembly of believers, called 
out of the world." Then it follows that baptized 
infants constitute no part of the church of Christ. 
They do not enter into its composition at all. Pedo- 
baptists, however, say they do. Dr. E. then must 
of necessity admit that Pedobaptist organizations 
are churches in a sense which they themselves do 
not recognize. For we shall see that he concedes 
these organizations to be churches. Again, says 
Dr. E., "As believers they are naturally combined 
under some form of discipline and ordinances.'' 
What "form of discipline and ordinances?" I ask. 
Must it not be the " form " which the Scriptures en- 
join ? Believers, in their regeneration, are called 

* To understand fully the references to Dr. Lynd the reader will re- 
member that several communications from him and the author of the 
'* Landmark " have been published in the Western Recorder. 



304 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

out from the world in one sense, and in the most 
important sense, too. God looks upon them as sep- 
arate from the world. But then there is to be a 
visible separation from the world. There is to be 
the combination to which Dr. E. refers. How is 
the visible separation to take place ? How is the 
combination to be effected ? Is it not by baptism ? 
And if so, can there be a church organization with- 
out baptism ? Let all the Doctors of Divinity in 
Christendom answer. Dr. Griffin said truly, "Where 
there is no baptism there are no visible churches."' 

" But," says Dr. E., " the regimen or discipline- 
does not enter into the essence of the church. 
Without these they [believers] may be saved, or be- 
long to the church universal." Yes, but the discus- 
sion is not about the " church universal," but about 
visible churches of Christ. There is no universal 
visible church; and if the universal invisible church, 
composed of all the saved, has what Dr. E. calls 
"form," it is impossible to know what it is. We 
have no idea of "form" apart from visibility. 

Of Pedobaptist societies Dr. E. says: "They are 
churches, but churches imperfectly organized and 
disciplined; churches in partial error and disobe- 
dience; churches irregular and unscriptural in their 
ordinances and polity. What shall I say to this ? 
We can learn from the Scriptures alone what a 
church is, for the Scriptures alone prescribe the ma- 
terials of which it is composed, its form of organiza- 
tion, etc. How then there can be churches " un\ 
scriptural in their ordinances and polity" I cannot 



An Old Landmark Beset. 305 

conceive. To say that the Scriptures provided for 
the existence of unscriptural churches is an absurd- 
ity. Dr. E. first speaks of Pedobaptist communi- 
ties as "churches imperfectly organized and disci- 
plined ; ' — then as "churches in partial error and 
disobedience " — and lastly, as "churches irregular 
and unscriptural in their ordinances and polity."' 
Thus he ends the sentence, but it is incomplete, and 
always will be, till he adds that "unscriptural 
churches " are not churches at all. A visible church 
without baptism. How can this be ? The various 
sects of Pedobaptists themselves say it cannot be. 
Baptists once said, whatever they may say now, that 
a church is composed of persons baptized upon a. 
credible profession of faith in Christ. The day 
has been when Baptists had never heard or thought 
of a visible church without baptism — nor had Pedo- 
baptists. The times are now changed, and Baptists 
may be found who are determined on having Pedo- 
baptists in the visible churches of Christ without 
baptism — a thing that Pedobaptists themselves con- 
sider impossible. 

Dr. E. says again : " Though we look for visible- 
churches only where there is baptism, or intended 
baptism," etc. I need not quote further. This is- 
the first time I have known a Baptist minister to 
make " intended baptism " answer the purpose 
which baptism answers ! " Tell it not in Gath ! " 
lest Presbyterians rejoice and Methodists triumph ! 
What is this "intended baptism?" It is of course 
not baptism. It is intended as baptism. What 

20 



306 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

does the intention amount to ? If Christ commands 
believers to be immersed, as he certainly does, and 
they intend ever so sincerely to obey him by sub- 
mitting to the sprinkling of water, do they obey 
him ? This is the question. In other words, does 
sincerity of intention in doing a thing make it right ? 
If so, Saul of Tarsus did right in doing many things 
contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 

After all, Dr. Everts' conceptions of a church 
seem to be confused; for in the May number of the 
depository he speaks of " Pedobaptist communities" 
as "in a scriptural sense Christian congregations or 
churches," and yet he says, "We do not regard 
Pedobaptist communities churches organized accord- 
ing to the gospel." To reconcile these two declara- 
tions is a task I have no capacity to perform. How 
communities not "organized according to the gos- 
pel " can be, "in a scriptural sense, Christian con- 
gregations or churches," is more than I ever expect 
to know. The thing being impossible, cannot be 
known. 

Dr. E. does me injustice — unintentionally no 
•doubt — by representing me as making a distinction 
between "churches of Christ, " and "churches or- 
ganized according to the gospel." I make no such 
distinction. I use the phrases as synonymous. 
Indeed, where Dr. E. quotes from me I use no 
phrase as explanatory of the other, which shows 
that I regard them as equivalent. The effort of 
Dr. E. to prove Pedobaptist societies "churches of 
Christ " is generally regarded among Baptists (so 



An Old Landmark Beset. 307 

■far as I have learned) as a signal failure. This 
being the fact, 1 shall not enlarge on the topic. 
There is another point made by Dr. E., namely, 
that "preaching the gospel is not exclusively an 
official act;" but as I shall have occasion to notice 
this in meeting Prof. Farnam's objections, I here 
take leave of the pastor of the Walnut-street Church. 

Prof. Farnam is, in some respects, superior to all 
the opponents of the "Landmark" who have yet 
taken part in the discussion. He has a deeper pen- 
etration and superior logical acumen. He thinks 
more closely. This, at least, is my opinion. It 
would be very difficult to have his professorship in 
the Georgetown College more ably filled. 

As to the discussion on the ' ' Landmark " ques- 
tion between Prof. F. and myself in the Tennessee 
Baptist, I shall not now refer to all the points 
directly and indirectly presented. Nor is it neces- 
sary ; for Prof. F. in the Baptist of August 18, 1855, 
(which contains his last article) says: "I have 
argued this question with him on the hypothesis that 
Pedobaptist societies are not gospel churches." 
Again, referring to me, he says: "The proposition 
which he ought to have proven in the outset is, 

THAT NO UNORDAINED CHRISTIAN HAS 'I HE RIGHT TO 

preach! " I marvel at this from so acute a logician. 
What makes it my duty to prove a negative ? Men 
may, if they choose, attempt the proof of a nega- 
tive, as I did in writing the ' ' Landmark, " but the 
laws of logic do not demand it of them. Why did 
riot Prof. F. prove that private Christians have a 



308 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

right to preach % He is in the affirmative, and if he 
can establish this proposition the "Landmark " fall? 
— aye, more than this — it will follow that our 
churches, from the days of the apostles, have per- 
formed a work of supererogation in setting men 
apart to the ministry. It is important in this discus- 
sion to have a definite conception of the word 
preach. There are not less than six terms in the 
original Greek of the Acts of the Apostles which are 
translated preach. This word preach must be a re- 
markable one if it conveys all the ideas expressed by 
six Greek terms. One of these terms means to 

PREACH TO PROCLAIM PUBLICLY TO CRY AS A HERALD; 

— and there is but one that does. A second term 
means to communicate good tidings, and it may be 
done publicly or privately. A third term simply 
means to declare, a fourth to reason, a fifth to 
speak, and the sixth to speak boldly. Yet they are 
all translated preach. I am concerned in this con- 
troversy with the first two of the six terms. The 
first of the two is used, Mark xvi. 15, Luke xxiv. 47: 
"Preach the gospel to every creature " — "that re- 
pentance and remission of sins should be preached,'* 
etc. The word here certainly means to proclaim 
publicly. It is used Acts viii. 5: "Philip went 
down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ 
unto them." But it is not used in the fourth verse 
of the same chapter, where it is said, "they that 
were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the 
word;" nor is it used in the 35th verse of the chap- 
ter where Philip is said to have "preached Jesus '* 



An Old Landmark Reset. 309 

to the Ethiopian. In these two verses the second 
Greek term is employed which means to communi- 
oate good tidings. The first of these terms is 
kerusso, the second euangelizo. 

It will throw some light on the subject to ascer- 
tain how the first of these terms is used in the Greek 
version of the Old Testament. It is employed Gen- 
esis xli. 43, "And they cried before him, Bow the 
knee," etc. It is used Jonah i. 2, "Arise, go to 
Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it," etc.; 
also iii. 2,5,7: "Preach unto it the preaching that 
I bid thee." "And he cried and said," etc. "So 
the people of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed 
a fast." "And he caused it to be proclaimed," etc. 
Here we have the terms cry, preach and proclaim, 
but in the Greek version one term, and that the one 
employed by Christ, Markxvi. 15. It is evident, there- 
fore, that the wordin the Septuagint means to proclaim 
publicly. And that it has the same meaning in the 
New Testament, may be seen from a variety of pas- 
sages in which it is translated to preach, and from 
Rev. v. 2, ''And I saw a strange angel proclaiming 
with a loud voice, " etc. This word in the New Tes- 
tament is first applied to John the Baptist, Matt, 
iii. 1. It is used also Matt. iv. 17, "From that time 
Jesus began to preach," etc. And this passage, as 
Elder J. S. Baker has argued, shows very clearly the 
distinction between talking, conversing on divine 
things and preaching. Jesus had talked on divine 
things, to say the least, from the time he was twelve 
years old, but he began to preach after he was bap- 



310 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

tized. And this is a very significant fact. If Jesus 
did not begin to preach till he was baptized, what 
authority does the New Testament give any unbap- 
tized man to preach ? 

My position is that, according to the gospel, 
authority to preach must, under God, emanate from 
a visible church of Christ. Hence members of a 
visible church alone are eligible to the work of the= 
ministry; for a church has no control of those who 
do not belong to it. But Pedobaptist societies are 
not visible churches of Christ. How then can they 
confer gospel authority to preach ? Prof. Farnam,. 
however, argues the "Landmark" question on the 
hypothesis that Pedobaptist societies are not gospeL 
churches, and lie refers to illustrious Pedobaptists 
who, he has no doubt, were called of God to preach. 
This presents no difficulty; for God's call must, ac- 
cording to the gospel, be succeeded by a church's 
call, and recognized in the credentials given by that 
church to the individual called. I go farther and 
say, that if God were, with an audible voice, as loud 
as heaven's mightiest thunder, to call a Pedobaptist 
to preach, we would not be justified in departing 
from the Scriptures, unless we were divinely told the 
utterances of that voice were intended to supersede 
the teachings of the New Testament. Such informa- 
tion would intimate the beginning of a new economy, 
and I am writing of the present dispensation. 

I need not enlarge. Prof. F., to maintain his 
position, must not only show that the lay-members 
of a visible church have the right to preach, but he= 



An Old Landmark Beset. 311 

must show that unbaptized persons ('and consequently 
in no scriptural sense, members of a visible church 
of Christ) have the same right. This, I am sure, he 
can never do, and because he cannot do it, the ; ' Land- 
mark " stands, and is, I think, likely to stand. 

I have now noticed the most prominent objections 
that have been made to my little Tract; and though 
some of them at first view may appear plausible, 
yet when analyzed, not one of them, as it seems to 
me, is valid. 



CHAPTER XIII. 
JOHN A. BROADUS, D.D., LL.D. 

John Albert Broadus was born in Culpeper 
^county, "Virginia, January 24, 1827. He was of 
Welch descent, and the name was once spelled 
Broadhurst, and later Broaddus, and with John A. 
it began to be spelled in its present form. 

His father was a member of the Virginia Legisla- 
ture for a number of years, and was held in high 
esteem among his people. 

John A. Broadus was educated at the University 
•of Virginia, and that institution conferred on him 
the degree of Master of Arts in 1850. He was, in 
.some respects, the best scholar in the South, and 
liis knowledge of Greek was as thorough as that of 
;any man who has lived since the language was a 
spoken language. 

In 1851 he was elected Assistant Professor of 
Latin and Greek in the University of Virginia, 
which position he held for two years. He was 
during the same time pastor of the church in Char- 
lottesville, Va., and continued as pastor of that 
church until 1855, when he was elected Chaplain of 
the University, which position he held two years, 
and then returned to the pastorate of the Charlottes- 
ville church. He continued in that capacity for two 
years, making seven years as pastor of the church 

(312) 




JOHN A. BROADUS. D.D., LL.D. 



John A. Broadus, D.D., LL.D. 313 

and two years as Chaplain of the University, and 
nine years in all of public religious work in that 
town. 

In 1859 he was elected Professor of Homiletics 
and New Testament Interpretation in the Southern 
Baptist Theological Seminary, which position he 
held until his death, except for two years during 
the civil war, when he preached, as missionary in 
General Robert E. Lee's army, with great success. 

Dr. Broadus was one of the truest and safest of 
men. His judgment was mature, and his advice 
was eagerly sought. It was the confidence the peo- 
ple had in Drs. Broadus and Boyce that gave the 
Seminary its standing and influence. Orthodox, 
safe and sensible, the people relied on him. 

He was a Baptist in the true sense. He was op- 
posed to alien immersion (Immersions performed by 
others than Baptists), and so expressed himself in a 
letter written to a brother who had asked for advice, 
and this letter was widely published in the denomi- 
national papers. In a lecture to his class on one 
occasion, at least (perhaps on other occasions also), 
he announced that he was not in favor of pulpit 
affiliation (inviting preachers of other denominations 
into Baptist pulpits). This lecture was quoted and 
the quotations published in the denominational pa- 
pers. 

However, he was not offensive in the advocacy of 
his Baptist views. He never engaged in debate; 
perhaps he was not by nature a debater, but he did 
teach sound Baptist doctrine to the students who sat 
under him in the Seminary, 



314 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith.. 

Dr. Broadus was a preacher of the front rant. 
Wherever he preached the house was packed, fre- 
quently hundreds being turned away at the doors. 
Only one other man in his day could draw so large 
crowds as he, and that was that prince of theolo- 
gians and orator, J. R. Graves. His language was- 
simple, so simple that a child could readily under- 
stand; his thought was deep, so deep that a wise- 
man would need to think — a strange and rare com- 
bination. His sermons, like the words of Scripture, 
were so simple that the wayfaring man, though a 
fool, need not err therein, and yet there was depth, 
sufficient for the most thoughtful. 

During his connection with the Seminary he was 
at different times pastor of several small country 
churches near Louisville, Ky., and he took as much 
delight in preaching the gospel to those plain coun- 
try people as he would when standing before a great 
audience in Louisville, New York or Boston. 

At one time when the Southern Baptist Conven- 
tion met near his boyhood home, he was appointed 
to preach in one of the large city churches, but de- 
clined in order to have the pleasure of going out 
into the country to his childhood home and preach- 
ing to the plain farmers, many of whom knew him 
when he was a boy. The brother who went with 
him to that country church declared that it was the 
greatest sermon that Dr. Broadus ever preached. 

Dr. Broadus wrote a number of helpful books. 
He published a volume of sermons, and wrote a 
Commentary on Matthew, which have had a wide 



John A. Broadus, D.D., LL.D. 315- 

circulation. He wrote the Preparation and Deliv- 
ery of Sermons, which has had the widest circulation 
of any book of the kind ever published. It is used 
as a text-book in nearly all the Baptist theological 
schools, and is adopted by the Methodists and its 
study made compulsory on all Methodist preachers. 
It is used as a text-book by the Campbellites in their 
theological school at Lexington, Ky. It is an able, 
clear and helpful book. It is a sacred rhetoric and 
would be helpful to literary students of whatever 
class. He has also published a number of smaller 
books, viz : History of Preaching, Shall Women 
Speak in Mixed Religious Assemhlies f Immersion 
Is Christian Baptism, Glad Giving, etc. We pub- 
lish his tract on Glad Giving at the close of this 
sketch. He also wrote a Memoir of J. P. Boyce. 

Giving is a Baptist doctrine, and it is announced 
as a Baptist doctrine in our Confessions of Faith 
and Church Covenants, and no other man has made 
so plain a statement of that Baptist doctrine as Dr. 
Broadus. For that reason we publish it in this con- 
nection. 

Dr. Broadus died of pneumonia in Louisville, 
Ky., March 16, 1895. His mantle did not seem to 
fall on any other man. There was only one of him, 
and until we shall see him in Heaven we do not ex- 
pect to look upon his like again. 

The picture published in this connection is as good 
as any he ever had. He did not take a good pic- 
ture. Yet this picture gives an idea of how he ap- 
peared in his strongest days. 



'316 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

Dr. Broadus was "gentle unto all men, apt to 
teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that 
oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give 
them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth." 
2 Tim. 2:24-25. 

The Louisville Times said of him as he lay at the 
point of death : 

u As gentle Izaak Walton said of the strawberry, 
it may truthfully be said of Dr. John A. Broadus, 
who is now being gathered as one of Reaper Death's 
richest sheaves, that the good Lord might in His 
omnipotence have made a better, greater man, but 
it is by no means assured that he ever did. Meek 
;as Moses, wise as Solomon, patient as Job, daunt- 
less and eloquent as Saul of Tarsus, lovable as John, 
the beloved disciple, upon him every god doth seem 
to have his seal to give the world assurance of a 
man. After he shall have been gathered to his 
fathers it will be long before his church, his city, 
his country shall again look upon his like. Gentler 
than a woman, braver than a lion, more learned 
than Erasmus, he walked the straight path with head 
bent in humble obeisance to his God, but lowered 
his crest to no mortal man. That a light so lumin- 
ous, so radiant, so mellifluous must go out in the 
deepening of the shadows of Time, and be swal- 
lowed up in the effulgence of Eternity, can but over- 
whelm the finite mind with questions to which come 
no replies, with sorrows for which there is no earthly 
solace." 



GLAD GIVING. 

"God loveth a cheerful giver." — II. Cor. 9:7. 

One of the greatest privileges of human life 
on earth, is to give. Who has not felt the jojr 
of giving ? It may be personal attention that you 
gave, or instruction and counsel, or property, or the 
most convenient form of property for giving, money. 
To give is a far pleasanter thing than to receive. 
We have all found it gratifying to receive gifts of 
personal help, or pecuniary aid, when we really 
needed it, but more delightful still to give to others. 
You need not raise any objection to this position of 
mine, because I can support it by the highest author- 
ity. Did you ever notice that there is a striking 
saying of the Founder of Christianity, which is not 
recorded in the gospels ? The Apostle Paul, at the 
end of the twentieth chapter of Acts, says to the 
Christians whom he is addressing, that they must 
"remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he 
himself said, It is more blessed to give than to re- 
ceive." Literally translated, this would be, .it is a 
happier thing to give than to receive. Now I am 
quite sure, friends, that many of you have found 
this true in your experience from childhood until 
now. But our social usages and our Christian labors 
involve a great variety of occasions for giving. Many 
good men and women, interested in pushing some 

(317) 



318 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

particular benevolent enterprise, besiege their friends 
and acquaintances with frequent entreaties to give. 
Our churches take many contributions for many ob- 
jects. And so you will hear some persons say, "I 
don't like to go to such and such a church, they talk 
too much there about giving.*' Now my dear friend, 
please don't say that any more, because you remem- 
ber that the Saviour said, — " He himself said," — It 
is a happier thing to give than to receive. 

When the Western or Latin Christians began the 
practice of observing a certain day in commemora- 
tion of the Saviour's birth, a thing which we first 
find mentioned about two centuries after that event, 
and had settled upon the last week of the year for 
that purpose, they very naturally transferred to this 
•celebration some old Roman customs which had for 
many centuries attached to the feast called the 
Saturnalia, observed by the Romans in connection 
with the winter solstice. And none of the r other 
•customs which gradually became connected, in differ- 
ent countries, with this celebration have proved 
more agreeable. The practice of lighting many can- 
dles was borrowed from a Jewish feast held about 
that time. The Yule log, or Christmas log, — some 
of you older gentlemen remember what a happy ado 
we used to make over the Christmas log when we 
were boys on the plantation, — this came from the 
Scandinavian tree-worship. But from the Roman 
feast they took at the beginning the practice of al- 
lowing holiday to slaves and school children, and 
that families and friends should make gifts to each 



Glad Giving. 319 

other. And so this has come down to you and me, 
-and your children and mine, as a delightful custom. 
Perhaps I may suggest about it, in passing, that 
when money is scarce and there are so many other 
things to be done with it, we may compensate for 
making the gifts less expensive than usual by taking 
more than ordinary pains in the way of adapting them 
to the particular persons. The loving care we thus 
show may give more pleasure than would be given 
by greater financial cost. 

Since giving is so delightful and every way so 
desirable a thing, we are not surprised to find 
much about it in the Bible. The Old Testament 
speaks often of giving to the poor. The Saviour 
especially urged giving. And here in the 8th and 
9th chapters of II. Corinthians we find reference to 
a quite remarkable transaction. It had long been 
the custom for wealthy and generous Jews living in 
foreign countries to send contributions to Jerusalem 
for the support of poor Jews who lived there, many 
of whom had themselves come from foreign coun- 
tries to spend their last years and find their graves at 
the holy city. Now when any of these poor Jews 
became Christians, they were at once cut off from all 
share in such contributions. And that was one occa- 
sion of the magnificent outburst of Christian gener- 
osity which occurred in the first years at Jerusalem, 
when the brethren regarded their property as held 
by them for each other's benefit and would not say 
that it was their own, and some of them even sold 
real estate and brought the money for the support of 



320 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

the needy. Such a plan as this was of course a tem- 
porary thing. But as Christianity became diffused in 
foreign countries, and a good many Gentiles became 
Christians, the idea very naturally arose, that these 
Gentile churches might send contributions to Jerusa- 
lem for the support of the Christian poor, as the Jews 
had been wont to do for the Jewish poor. Soon 
after the Apostle Paul's first great missionary jour- 
ney, when a conference was held at Jerusalem about 
the relations of the Gentile and Jewish Christians, 
some of the other apostles suggested to Paul that his 
churches ought to remember the poor, — meaning the 
poor Christians at Jerusalem, — and the Apostle says 
that he himself was also forward to do so. Now a 
few years later, we learn from these chapters of II. 
Corinthians that he has not merely been doing this 
on a small scale, but has for a year or more been or- 
ganizing a general contribution among the churches 
which he and his associates had founded in three or 
four great provinces of the Roman Empire, —cer- 
tainly in Galatia, which was in the center of what 
we call Asia Minor, and in Macedonia, which in- 
cluded the northern part of what we call Greece, and 
in Achaia, which was the southern part of Greece, 
and probably also in what the New Testament calls 
Asia, the district of which Ephesus was the capital, 
— he had been making personal appeals and sending 
representatives, and he refers to the subject in sev- 
eral of his inspired letters. We can see that great 
moral benefit came from this wide-spread contribu- 
tion, apart from the immediate practical help given 






Glad Giving. 321 

to the community. This large and general gift of 
Gentile Christians for the benefit of Jewish Chris- 
tians at Jerusalem, served to show that these Gen- 
tiles had real Christian love, and to break down the 
Jewish prejudice. Besides, the independent and 
scattered churches in these great Roman provinces 
were thus brought into active co-operation for an ob- 
ject of common interest. What a blessed thing it 
would have been if in the growing centuries Chris- 
tians had only left all this where the Apostle placed 
it, — independent churches, but gladly co-operating 
and thus maintaining the sense of free Christian 
unity ? 

Now as to the various means of promoting this 
great collection, we find the Apostle devoting a por- 
tion of his second epistle to the Corinthians to that 
subject. He gives a variety of reasons why the 
Christians in Achaia, of which Corinth was the cap- 
ital, should gladly contribute for this great object. 
He does not say anything about their furnishing 
money to support their own worship. You may 
have noticed that there is nothing on that subject in 
the New Testament. I suppose that was merely 
taken for granted. Of course people would support 
their own worship — the meetings of their own 
church. The Jews were familiar with this idea in 
their synagogues, for which they erected buildings 
and supported officials, and the Greeks and Romans 
had a great variety of societies, educational or lit- 
erary, social or religious, and were familiar with the 
idea of contributing for the support of any such or- 

21 



322 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

ganization to which a person belonged. So that 
might be taken for granted. And reasons why they 
should give for objects far away would apply at the 
same time to the propriety of gladly contributing for 
the support of their own church. 

Now I wish to gather out of these chapters viii. 
and ix., first, a number of reasons for giving; and 
then some directions as to the manner of giving. 

I. Reasons for giving. 

(1) It is a very notable thing to observe how 
promptly the Apostle states one of the great reasons 
for glad giving, namely, imitation of Christ. "Ye 
know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, 
though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became 
poor, that ye through his poverty might become 
rich. 1 ' * My Christian hearers, do you not feel 
moved by the thought of imitating Christ ? At a 
bookstore, yesterday, while anxiously searching for 
books I could afford to buy and give to friends, I 
observed, as I have often done in past years, what 
a great number of copies they had in different size 
and binding, of the famous little book called "The 
Imitation of Christ." The very name of the book 
attracts attention and awakens interest. What a , 
privilege to have such an example ! What a duty 
to walk in his steps ! But sometimes people are 
discouraged at the very elevation and perfection of 
the example. They say : "How can I hope to imi- 
tate the Divine Redeemer in, all his unspeakable 

* This was no doubt said for the purpose of awakening gratitude, as 
well as of exciting to imitation. The former topic will be introduced 
further on. 



Glad Giving. 323 

sacrifice, in all that he gave up, and all that he en- 
dured to accomplish the salvation of men \ " Well, 
we are often stirred by notable examples of persons 
in very different circumstances from our own. 
Every college lad. when he makes his speech, likes 
to quote : 

;; Lives of great men all remind us 
We can make our lives sublime." 

Every generous youthful spirit is stirred by that 
thought, yet they do not expect to be all conquerors, 
or sovereigns, or philosophers, or inventors. A 
great example standing high on a lofty pedestal does 
not dishearten us by its elevation. And oh ! shall 
we not arouse our souls and earnestly strive to imi- 
tate our Saviour ? to imitate him in many ways, 
and among them, to imitate him in self-sacrificing 
generosity for the benefit of others ' Though he 
was rich, oh how rich ! yet for your sakes he be- 
came poor, oh so poor ! that ye through his poverty 
might become rich. 

i 2) We ought to give through love to our fellow- 
men, and especially to our fellow-Christians. One 
of the great leading ideas of the Christian religion 
is love. The Old Testament enjoined it. "Thou 
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself/' But there was 
room for a quibble as to what was meant by neigh- 
bor, and we find that the Jewish teachers had be- 
come accustomed to limit the term. They would 
say: ;i An enemy is not my neighbor. A hateful 
Samaritan, a dog of a Gentile, is no neighbor of 
mine.*' And so they were accustomed to quote this 



324 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

great precept with an addition of their own. Our 
Lord refers to this in his sermon on the Mount. 
"Ye have heard the saying, Thou shalt love thy 
neighbor, and hate thine enemy." The last was 
stuck on, and he at once tears up their distinction 
by the roots : — "but I say to you, love your ene- 
mies." An enemy too is a neighbor, in the sense of 
the law. On a later occasion, when a man was 
thinking of the same Jewish distinction — a sharp 
lawyer he was — and said to Jesus: "Ah, but who 
is my neighbor? " the Saviour told a beautiful and 
touching story of a good Samaritan who showed 
himself neighbor to a Jew that was in trouble. He 
thereby pointed out that even a Samaritan was a 
neighbor in the sense of the divine precept. Thus 
the Saviour broadened out the Old Testament teach- 
ing into a yet wider universal application. We must 
love our fellow-men. At the same time he taught 
his disciples that they ought to have a peculiar love 
for one another, declaring this to be a new com- 
mandment which he gave them, and that all men 
would know them to be his disciples by their mutual 
Christian love. So then the Apostle appeals to 
those sentiments of Christian love, and at the close 
of the eighth chapter bids the Corinthians to give 
"the proof of their love " by gladly contributing for 
the benefit of their brethren. Thus we have seen 
two of the reasons for giving which he presents. 
Now notice two others. 

(3) They must give in emulation of other givers. 
When he first introduces the subject, at the begin- 



Glad Giving. 325 

ning of the eighth chapter, he tells the Corinthians 
about the zealous liberality of these Macedonian 
Christians among whom he is staying at the time of 
writing. "We make known to you, brethren, the 
grace of God which has been given in the churches 
of Macedonia " — you see it is not mere human good- 
ness, it is the fruit of God's grace — '• that in a great 
trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy and 
their deep poverty abounded — or overflowed — unto 
the riches of their liberality." By this example he 
would stir the Corinthians to like zeal in giving. 
And, notice, it is the example of the poov. The 
Macedonian Christians were comparatively poor, and 
their generosity was on that account all the more im- 
pressive an example. Ah, if all Christian people 
would only be stirred by Christian love, to give ! 
The example of the poor would often cause those 
who are rich, or who are going to become rich, to 
give, and thus some gift very small in itself might 
become the occasion hereafter of great and mighty 
gifts. Let not the poor stand back. Let them do 
their duty and enjoy their privilege as a personal 
matter, and remember also that their example may 
have great power. The Apostle wishes those whom 
he addresses to emulate these Christians around him. 
Emulation is a very powerful tendency in human 
nature, easily corrupted into envy, but in itself a 
healthful and useful tendency. Whenever we see 
other people doing some handsome thing, it ought to 
awaken in us a desire to do likewise. This is natural, 
and we ought to encourage and control so helpful a 



326 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

disposition. There are many known to us who 
give generously, some who are rich, and some who 
are poor. Let us gladly emulate their noble ex- 
ample. 

(4) On the other hand, we ought to give out of 
self-respect, knowing that other people have a right 
to expect it of us. In the beginning of the ninth 
chapter, the Apostle says that he had stirred up 
these Macedonians by telling them that the brethren 
in Achaia and Corinth had long before been zealous 
in this matter; and this example had been quite 
helpful in Macedonia. Now then he says, I thought 
it necessary to exhort the brethren, that they may go 
and have your contribution all ready sure enough, 
according to the good account I gave of you: for other- 
wise, if I come, and some of these Macedonians with 
me, and it appears that after all you are not ready, 
I don't say that you will be ashamed, but I know 
that I shall. "Well, well," says some Christian 
hearer, "is it possible that the inspired Apostle ap- 
peals to such motives as these ? I thought we ought 
to give simply and alone from a sense of duty, and 
that to think about emulation, and pride, and shame, 
would be all wrong." Yet you see the inspired 
Apostle does appeal to these motives, to emulation 
on the one hand, and to self-respect on the other 
hand. These are not the highest motives, but they 
are real and powerful, and, rightly used, they are 
valuable. Human nature is a complex affair. I 
wonder if any person ever performs any action from 
only a single motive! Usually, beyond question, we 



Glad Giving. 327 

act from a variety of motives, and if the greater 
motives are only in their dne supremacy, then these 
other considerations will be helpful. Christianity 
proposes to take hold of the entire man, with all his 
complex constitution, and to subordinate and conse- 
crate his whole being to the benefit of mankind and 
to the glory of Christ. 

(5) Two other reasons for giving remain to be 
mentioned, as presented by the Apostle. One is the 
hope of divine reward. Notice this: "He that sow- 
eth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he that 
soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully." He 
promises that God will reward them for generous 
giving in behalf of their needy brethren. Now if a 
man were to give simply for the sake of such a re- 
ward, he would not get it; just as we all know if a 
man makes happiness the exclusive object of his 
efforts, he will not get happiness. But if his atten- 
tion is turned mainly to duty, and he tries to do his 
duty, the happiness comes along unsought. And so 
if we are influenced in giving mainly by other con- 
siderations, it is not wrong to remember, it is a com- 
fort to remember, that we shall be rewarded. We 
shall be rewarded in this life. What a comfort it is 
to know that we have been able to help others. And 
we shall be rewarded amid the great and blessed and 
perfect rewards of the life eternal. 

(6) And now conies the last and greatest of all 
these reasons for giving, with which the Apostle 
closes and completes all that he has to say on this 
subject, — "Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable 



328 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

gift. 1 ' What an impressive conclusion to all these 
exhortations ! We are called on to give, and to give 
gladly, and the highest of all motives for so doing is 
gratitude for God's unspeakable gift. I suppose 
there can be no doubt as to what gift is here referred 
to. We have many things to thank God for, many 
gifts of his providence, many yet richer gifts of his 
grace, and when we are tempted to repine at the ills of 
life we cannot remedy, at the burdens we are called 
to bear, better occupy ourselves with thanking God 
for all his many mercies. But when the Apostle 
says, "Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable 
gift," you know what he must mean. "God so 
loved the world that he gave," — that he gave, — Oh, 
what did he give? Oh, heaven and earth! do je 
know % Oh, time and eternity ! can ye ever fully 
tell? "God so loved the world, that he gave his 
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him 
might not perish, but might have eternal life." Let 
this great gift lift up our souls to look upon all 
Christian giving as a privilege and a delight. 

II. Now we turn to what the Apostle says in this 
same passage about the manner of our giving. 

(1) We must give according to our ability, and 
sometimes more. Observe what the Apostle says 
at the beginning of the eighth chapter, about the 
way the Macedonians are giving: "For according 
to their power, yea, and beyond their power." 
Now people ought always to give up to their ability. 
They ought not usually to give beyond their ability. 
That would not be prudent, and would soon cut off 



Glad Giving. 329 

their opportunity of giving largely. But sometimes 
it is commendable to give beyond one's ability, and 
the Apostle does warmly commend these Christians 
for so doing. There is a still more notable exam- 
ple. Only yesterday I was reading with my class 
the story of the poor widow, who, as Jesus de- 
clared, put in more than all the rich people. It was 
but two little coins, the size of a fish-scale, and the 
Greek word used in Mark signifies ,; fish-scale coin." 
The two together amounted to much less than half 
of a cent in our money, but they would have bought 
something there — and this was all she had to live 
on. It would not be right, as a rule, for people to 
give all they have to live on. but sacred enthusiasm 
might sometimes make this justifiable, and the 
Saviour commends her for it. Look at her as she 
draws near to the contribution box ! See the glow 
on her face, of devout zeal. She is very poor, she 
can't do much, but she wants to do all she can. 
Dear old woman ! she doesn't know who is looking 
at her. Ah ! how little she imagines that one is 
looking on who knows the depths of her heart and 
the whole story of her life, and appreciates her love 
and enthusiasm ! She does not know who is looking 
at her — one more than mortal, more than man, more 
than the high angels. 1 wonder if he does not look 
now at people who make contributions. He has not 
changed. He is "the same yesterday, and to-day, 
and forever." He must look on now with like in- 
terest and like understanding, as to the relation of 
our gifts to our means, of our actions to our motives. 



330 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

Dear old woman ! she does not know that all the 
world will hear of her, that her story will go down 
embalmed to the coming ages. Better, doubtless, 
that she does not know. Leave her alone in her 
simplicity and sincerity, and let us lay to heart the 
lesson which through her the Great Teacher has 
taught to us all. It is sometimes right, in a holy 
enthusiasm, to give what would generally be sheer 
imprudence. 

(2) We must give systematically, yet sometimes 
make an extra gift outside of the system. In his 
previous epistle to the Corinthians, near the end of 
it, the Apostle expressly enjoined on them that they 
should systematically lay up money for the purposes 
of this contribution. "Upon the first day of the 
week let every one of you lay by him in store." 
This was the day on which the Christians had begun 
to worship, the first day of the week, on which their 
Saviour arose from the dead; and on this day of 
worship and gratitude they should lay by something, 
thus once a week making a contribution. This is 
not directly an injunction to contribute money at 
church on the day of worship, for in this case it was 
to be a fund laid up in the man's own charge, and 
gradually accumulating until the Apostle came. 
But it involves the principle of systematic giving, 
and obviously suggests the propriety of giving 
weekly on the first day. Let us beware of thinking 
that we shall do our duty by mere occasional and 
impulsive giving, when some strong feeling sweeps 
us away. Let us have system in our giving, and, in 



Glad Giving. 33r 

the good sense, make a business of giving. But 
then when system is established and the habit as- 
sured, it will sometimes be proper to give outside of 
the system, just as it is about praying. I hope that 
each one of you has regular times for prayer, and 
when the time comes, then you must pray, whether 
you feel like it or not. If you feel like praying, it 
is of course proper that you should do so; and if you 
do not then feel like praying, it is all the more im- 
portant that you should pray, beginning with the 
confession that you do not feel as you ought to, and 
asking that you may be enabled by divine grace 
to feel your need. So then pray when the time 
comes, and be regular and systematic about it. But 
besides that, whenever any special occasion arises 
for prayer at some other time, or any strong impulse 
stirs your soul, making prayer necessary or natural, 
then do not wait for the time to come, but pray at 
once. Now just so as to giving. Have your sys- 
tem about giving, and follow your system, but be 
willing to give sometimes outside of your system, 
when you see special need or feel any special in- 
terest. 

(3) We must give cheerfully, for "God loveth a 
cheerful giver." Let us tutor ourselves to regard 
giving as not simply a duty, but a high privilege. 
Let us remember that all the reasons for giving at all 
are reasons for giving gladly. Let us think how we 
owe all things to God, and that what we give to 
others is in the highest sense giving to God. Let 
us remember how the Saviour will sav on the great 



332 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

day. ' ' Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of 
these, ye did it unto me." Let us not be -satisfied 
to give grudgingly, but educate ourselves into giv- 
ing cheerfully. Some people pervert this saying. I 
once heard a man say: "'God loveth a cheerful 
giver. ' I can't give this cheerfully, and so I had 
as well not give it at all." Suppose a boy should try 
that. His father, as he leaves in the morning, tells 
John of certain work he wants him to do. After he 
has gone, John dawdles and frets, and his mother 
says : " John, you ought to do this work cheerfully, 
to please your father. Y our father doesn't want you 
to work with fretful complaining; he wants you to 
work cheerfully." Suppose the boy seizes on that, 
and says, "Well, I can't work cheerfully, as father 
wants me to do, and so I reckon I had as well not do 
it at all." Wouldn't he catch it that evening when 
father comes home ? He ought to catch it, but boys 
nowadays don't always catch it as often as might 
be good for them. Ah, fellow-Christians, children 
of the great and loving Father, shall we thus trifle 
with him? Shall we not recognize the duty and the 
dear privilege of giving, as in his sight and in his 
service ? Shall we not rebuke ourselves if ever 
tempted to neglect this privilege, or to perform it 
grudgingly? Shall we not learn to give gladly, and 
always remember with grateful hearts that "God 
loveth a cheerful giver? " 




J. S. COLEMAN, D.D., Ph.D. 



CHAPTER XIV. 
ELD. JAS. S. COLEMAN, D.D., Ph.D. 

During the excitement preceding the Revolution- 
ary war a young German and his new wife sailed 
for America, where he hoped to have for his own a 
thousand acres of land. He first settled in Pennsyl- 
vania, near Lancaster. Not being able to secure the 
thousand acres in Pennsylvania he started out again 
in search of a home. He, in a rude craft, dropped 
down the Ohio river, and after making numerous at- 
tempts to land, and being prevented by Indians, he 
finally made a safe landing near where Owensboro, 
Ky. , now is. 

The young couple, with a few cooking utensils and 
a small camping outfit, made their way through the 
wilderness to a little fort, on a little stream called 
the Rough, about fifteen miles from where it runs 
into Green river. Here he found the coveted one 
thousand acres, and he built a log cabin and began 
to make a home. 

The country was full of wild animals, and the 
beaver was so plentiful that they had built a dam 
across the little river, and the place was, therefore, 
named Beaver Dam. 

A son was born and he was called "Heinrich" 
(Henry), and " der Jdeiner Heinrich" (the little 
Henry) was the pet of the settlement. In this son 
was embodied the hope of the fond parents, and as 

(333) 



334 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

the sequel will show they were not disappointed in 
him. 

When the young couple started from Germany, 
some one gave them a copy of Luther's translation 
of the Bible in German, and the young "frau" 
(wife) found time to read it in her wilderness home, 
and it brought her to Christ. Her surrender was 
complete and she, therefore, desired to obey all of 
the commandments. She understood what the Ger- 
man word, ^taufen," with which Luther translated 
the Greek word "baptizo," meant, but just how she 
could be " getaufen " (baptized) was a hard question, 
as there was not a preacher in all that country. 

The command was so plain and unmistakable that 
she felt that she must obey, and she went to the 
stream near her door and dipped herself "in the 
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
Holy Ghost." 

The news of this strange act spread, not only in 
that settlement, but it reached other settlements as 
well, until it came to the ears of Eld. Benjamin 
Talbott, and he saddled his horse and started in 
search of the woman who had baptized herself. He 
hunted from settlement to settlement until he came 
to Beaver Dam and in front of her very door. He 
told her his business, and with a bounding heart she 
dispatched little Henry and others in every direction 
and sent out the announcement that a preacher was 
at her house and would preach there. A large con- 
gregation — almost everybody in the settlement — 
gathered, and a meeting was held, and a number of 



Eld. Jas. S. Coleman. D.B., Ph.D. 335 

converts were baptized, and among others the woman 
who had baptized herself. Eld. Talbott had ex- 
plained to her that such a baptism was not valid, 
although her intentions were the best, and she with 
little Henry and her husband were baptized. This 
was the beginning of the Beaver Dam church, which 
is still serving the Lord, and this church is the 
mother of all the rest in that part of Kentucky. 

The name of this interesting family was " Kohl- 
mann," and is now spelled Coleman, and the woman 
w T ho baptized herself is the great-grandmother and 
little Henry the grandfather of the subject of this 
sketch, Eld. J. S. Coleman, D.D., Ph.D. 

James Smith Coleman was born at Beaver Dam, 
Ky., Feb. 23, 1827, and is now in his seventy-third 
year. He is affectionately spoken of as the " Old 
War Horse." 

Early in the year 1838 he was awakened to a 
sense of his sinful condition by reading Watts' old 
hymn, t; That awful day will surely come," etc. 
His conviction was so deep and strong that, after 
wrestling for two or three days, he proposed to God 
that if he would let him serve God in Hell that he 
would give up all hope of Heaven and cheerfully go 
there. The surrender being complete, he was in- 
stantly made to rejoice with a sense of acceptance. 
He was baptized into the fellowship of Beaver Dam 
church, March 10, 1838, age eleven years. 

He soon felt that he was called to preach the gos- 
pel, and in his attempt to throw off that impression 
lie became careless and left off secret prayer and his 



336 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

habitual Bible reading and plunged into a career of 
worldliness from which only the grace of God could 
deliver him. 

At this point in his life he sought an education to 
fit himself for a political career. After alternating 
for some years between teaching and going to school, 
he married Miss Rachel Chapman, who proved to be 
an excellent helpmeet. 

After marriage he plunged deeper into worldly 
matters, and he prospered in these things beyond 
expectation. Everything he touched turned into 
gold. He became a candidate for Sheriff of his 
county and was elected by a big majority, although 
his party (the Democratic) was not as strong in that 
county as the Whig, against which he ran. He 
served two terms as Sheriff, succeeded well, made 
money and grew in favor of the people. 

Under the then existing military laws he was 
elected Brigadier General of the Second Congres- 
sional district, and in this capacity he was offered, 
by his party, the nomination for a seat in Congress, 
which was equivalent to an election. But just here 
the whole current of his life was changed. 

On a matter of business he attended a service in 
a revival meeting in a neighboring church. When 
he went into the community he had no thought of 
attending church, and his going was a mere acci- 
dent, so far as the human side of the matter was 
concerned, but God used it to powerfully stir up the 
former impressions to preach the Gospel. So great 
were these impressions that he forgot the business 



Eld. Jas. S. Coleman, D.D., Ph.D. 337 

he came to transact and went home swearing eternal 
submission to the Lord's will, and on the next Sun- 
day night he preached in the old home church, 
Beaver Dam, his first sermon, and he continued to 
preach from church to church and from house to 
house. From his first effort there were conversions 
every time and everywhere. He gave up his office 
to his deputies and at the next church meeting he 
was licensed to preach, and a short time after was 
ordained and made missionary of the Gasper River 
Association, and within four years' time he had bap- 
tized about one thousand persons. 

His entering the ministry was like a clap of thun- 
der in a clear sky to the great majority of people. 
Some smiled, some scorned, some cursed, some said 
he was crazy, and others shouted the praises of God. 

His entering the ministry is an answer to those 
who sneer at the ministry and say that ''men be- 
come preachers when they find they can't do any- 
thing else." When such men as J. S. Coleman, 
Major W. E. Fenn, J. B. Moody. J. X. Hall and 
hundreds of others who have been pre-eminently 
successful in politics and business, enter the min- 
istry, it is proof that to be a successful preacher a 
man must be able to do almost anything else. 

Dr. Coleman is one of the first orators in the minis- 
try. His style is peculiar, but it has a power scarcely 
equaled by any other man. Some excel him in grace 
and culture, some excel him in diction, some may have 
a more melodious voice, but in that mysterious thing 
called jiovje/' he scarcely has an equal. 

22 



338 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

Perhaps no man has done more in distributing 
Baptist literature than he. He has been a book 
agent all his life. When he holds a meeting he 
leaves as many books and papers behind as possible, 
and their silent work goes on through the years. 
He has a colportage work now, all his own, and his 
agents are selling Baptist literature in several coun- 
ties of Kentucky. 

The man to whom Dr. Coleman owes more, per- 
haps, than to any other man is the late Dr. J. M. 
Pendleton. To Pendleton he went for instruction 
and advice, and he could not have gone to a grander 
or better man. Would to God that all our preach- 
ers had such a counselor. The chairs of theology in 
our seminaries are now largely filled with boys 
whose theological setting is somewhat uncertain, 
and it is to be feared that few such men as J. S. 
Coleman will be turned out by those schools. 

To use Dr. Coleman's own words, he is "an old 
Landmark successionist, denying the claims of all 
other churches." His unparalleled success in pas- 
toral and evangelistic work proves that holding these 
rigid Baptist doctrines does not interfere in the least 
with soul-winning. Whenever an anti-landmarker 
can show anything like such success for his work as 
can be shown for Coleman's work, then it will be 
time to cry down landmarkism as hurting the useful- 
ness of those who hold to it. 

Dr. Coleman is living with his second wife, who 
is a worthy woman and a true helpmeet. They 
have been living together for twenty years, and in 



Eld. Jas. S. Coleman, D.I)., Ph.D. 339 

their old age are serving the Lord as husband and 
wife in a way that is beautiful to behold. 

The churches he has served as pastor have been 
as a rule small country churches. He was invited 
to the Walnut-street Church, Louisville, Ky., with a 
view to the pastorate, but declined. He was called 
to Sacramento, California, and declined. His supe- 
rior ability would have secured him almost any 
church, but he preferred to remain in the Green 
river country and work with the small country 
churches. He has never lived over thirty miles 
from Beaver Dam, and he is now living on a part of 
that thousand acres which his great-grandfather pur- 
chased, and near the place in the stream where the 
woman baptized herself. 

He organized the church in Greenville and served 
it for a part of his time for thirty years. He was 
pastor for one year of the First Church, Owensboro, 
Ky., during which time there were two hundred and 
fifty additions, and the Walnut-street Church was 
planted that year, which has become a strong, ag- 
gressive church. He held a meeting in the Walnut- 
street Church and there were three hundred and 
fifty professions of faith. At the end of this meet- 
ing he was paralyzed and was not able to preach for 
a year, and hence he gave up his great work in 
Owensboro. After he recovered from his paralysis 
he returned to the Walnut-street Church and served 
it about four years, during which time there was 
built an elegant brick house. 

At Whitesville, Daviess county, he served for a 



340 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

part of his time for thirteen years, and he held one 
protracted meeting in which there were one hun- 
dred and thirty-two additions to the church, and in 
another, one hundred and five, still another, seventy- 
five additions. No other pastor in Kentucky has 
had so great success in evangelistic work. 

He organized Hartford Church in 1869, and 
preached for that church for half time for fifteen 
years. In 1886 he held a meeting there which re- 
sulted in over one hundred conversions. 

He organized the church in Madison ville, Ky. , in 
1870, while acting as State Evangelist for the Gen- 
eral Association, and he has served that church since 
that time one year, 1898., 

In every pastorate he has filled the congregations 
have steadily increased, and the capacity of the 
house has frequently limited the number of hearers. 
These churches have been built up in number and 
efficiency. The smallest number he ever baptized 
as a result of a meeting was twelve. The average 
preacher is generally satisfied if he can baptize so 
many at any time, but as God does not make all 
trees or rivers the same size, neither does he make 
all men great alike. By the grace of God we are 
all what we are. 

Dr. Coleman is a doctrinal preacher. He con- 
stantly emphasizes the peculiarities of the Baptist 
faith, and as a result he has baptized, in round num- 
bers, one thousand from other denominations. 
Those who are opposed to doctrinal preaching may 
learn a lesson here. He hardly ever preached a set 



Eld. Jas. S. Coleman, D.D., Ph.D. 341 

sermon on Baptist peculiarities, but he has woven it 
into almost every sermon. A fair sample of his 
preaching may be seen in the sermon at the close of 
this sketch on ' ; The Work of Baptists An Urgent 
Work." 

He has preached, in round numbers, fourteen 
thousand sermons, witnessed, under these sermons, 
ten thousand professions of faith, and has baptized 
exactly five thousand and twelve converts. The ma- 
jority of the other converts were baptized by other 
pastors, and some went to other denominations. 
Whenever some liberalist, who decries Landmark- 
ism, can meet that record, then, and not till then, 
will it be even considered possible for liberalism, 
pulpit affiliationism, and such like, to be as effective 
as uncompromising Baptist doctrines. 

He has assisted in organizing fifty churches, and 
has laid hands on fifty-five preachers, dedicated 
seventy-seven meeting houses, solemnized the rites 
of marriage two thousand times and preached two 
thousand funerals. He has made special addresses 
on temperance, education and denominational en- 
terprises about one thousand. He has baptized over 
two thousand persons when ice had to be removed 
from the surface of the water; he has forded streams 
and waded through mud roads, * ; enduring hardness 
as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. " 

Dr. Coleman has been a great debater. His 
greatest victory in debate was with Wm. L. Caskey, 
Methodist, at Calhoun, McLean county, Ky. 

Having studied effectiveness all his life, he set 



342 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

about preparing the best possible answer to the 
household baptism argument always used by Pedo- 
baptists in debate. He knew that by the next day 
Caskey would undertake to prove infant baptism by 
the household baptisms spoken of in the New Testa- 
ment. He carefully read the account of each of 
these household baptisms, and he discovered that no 
infant was mentioned, and he knew plainly that the 
whole argument was based on inference. So he 
concluded to meet inference with inference. He 
set about to see what he could infer to offset 
Caskey's inferences, and that he succeeded grandly 
will appear as follows. 

Caskey made his speech as Dr. Coleman expected, 
and argued that since households were baptized by 
the Apostles, and that it is reasonable to infer 
that infants were in these households, that infant 
baptism was scriptural. That was the sum of his 
speech. 

Dr. Coleman, in his reply, spoke as follows : k, I 
am surprised at Bro. Caskey's limited information 
concerning Lydia's household. He has inferred 
that Lydia had children, under the age of accounta- 
bility, and that, therefore, these children were bap- 
tized. I am surprised, sir, that you do not know 
that Lydia was a widow, and a traveling cloth mer- 
chant, and that she never had but one child, and 
that was a daughter, who had married a red-headed, 
one-eyed shoemaker, and had moved off to Damas- 
cus, and had not been at home for years, and that 
her household at that time consisted of herself and 



Eld. Jas. S. Coleman, D.D., Ph.D. 343 

servants, who assisted her in her business. I am 
surprised, sir, that you did not know this." 

Caskey, in his confusion, spoke out and said : 

" Dr. Coleman, how do know what you have just 
said?" 

In a lionlike voice the reply came : 

" I inferred it, sir, just like you inferred that 
there were children in the household." 

This was too much for the audience, which broke 
out in uproarious laughter and applause. When 
Caskey arose to speak the very sight of him would 
be enough, and the laughing, half-suppressed, would 
be so continual that it was with great difficulty he 
could proceed, and every time he would make the 
slightest reference to household baptisms the vision 
of that u red-headed, one-eyed shoemaker " would 
come into mind and the audience would break out in 
uncontrollable laughter, which could not be sup- 
pressed by the Moderator. Caskey gave it up as a 
bad job and cut the debate short one day and left. 

A Methodist class leader by the name of Yeaman 
was converted to the faith of the Baptists by this 
debate, and he has since become one of the leading 
preachers of the West. That class leader is now 
Eld. W. Pope Yeaman, D.D., LL.D., Ph.D., twenty 
years Moderator of the General Association of Mis- 
souri, and he has been pastor of some of the great- 
est churches in the West. 

Dr. Coleman has for thirty-seven years served the 
Daviess County Association as Moderator, and for 
nineteen years he has been Moderator of the Gen- 



344 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

eral Association of Kentucky. He is getting old, 
and as his picture, published in connection with this 
sketch, will show, he is feeble, but his energy will 
not let him rest. He is serving two weak, strug- 
gling churches, Grand Rivers and Morgantown, 
Ky., and when he falls it will be with the harness 
on. 

He can truly say : " I have fought a good fight, I 
have kept the faith,'' and with equal truth we can 
say for him that a crown of righteousness awaits 
him. 2 Tim. 4:7,8. 

Bethel College conferred on him the title of D.D., 
and Hartford College that of Ph.D. He edited and 
published the Green River Baptist during the civil 
war, and he was at one time connected with the 
Western Recorder. 

It was Dr. Coleman who introduced the first reso- 
lution in the Southern Baptist Convention suggest- 
ing that the Whitsitt matter be looked into, and he 
was made chairman of the investigating committee. 
It was he who offered in the General Association of 
Kentucky that memorable resolution which brought 
on that great discussion, on the floor of the Associa- 
tion, that gave Whitsitt his death blow, and in a few 
days thereafter the notorious Professor resigned. 
Dr. Coleman was dreaded by Dr. Whitsitt and his 
followers as but few men were. 



Brethren, while we sojourn here. 
Fight we must, but should not fear; 
Foes we have, but we've a friend, 
One that loves us to the end, 



Eld. Jas. S. Coleman, D.D., Ph.D. 345 

Forward, then, with courage go, 
Long we shall not dwell below: 
Soon the joyful news will come, 
Child, your Father calls, — come home." 



THE WORK OF THE BAPTISTS AN URGENT 
WORK. 

[Sermon delivered before the Daviess County Baptist Association by 
Eld. J. S. Coleman, D.D., of Hartford, Ky., Aug. 14. 1888.] 

"The King's Business Required Haste."— I. Saml. 21 :8. 

Notwithstanding their distinguishing independ- 
ent, democratic form of church government, their 
personal liberty and freedom of soul, yet Baptists 
are not free in the sense that they have a right to do 
as they please, unless they please to act in conform- 
ity to the will of their King, for they have a King; 
but they have but one King. He is a living and a 
reigning King : l ' The Lord of Lords and the King 
of Kings," possessing an inalienable right to reign 
and rule over His servants, whom He has purchased 
by the shedding of His own blood. 

Yes, Baptists are the subjects of one Master, one- 
Lord, one King, who is their only authoritative law- 
giver and exemplar, and to whom they acknowl- 
edge supreme allegiance; and as the first qualifica- 
tion of a loyal subject is obedience to the King's 
authority, Baptists should constantly illustrate their 
fealty to Christ by their unswerving fidelity to His 
government. 

I. Our high calling as Baptists is to attend to our 
King's business. 

We are not our own. We are bought with a 
price, that price having been been paid by our King. 

(346) 



The Work of the Baptists an Urgent Work. 34T 

Hence our first and paramount concern in life 
should be to do His bidding, by consecrating all our 
powers and all our resources to the promotion of 
His Kingdom among men. 

1. Whatever brought our King into the world, 
also sends us out into the world, ''The Son of Man 
came to seek and to save that which was lost." Our 
business, as his servants, is to seek and to save the 
lost, in the use of the agencies and instrumentalities 
that he puts within our reach. Each should employ 
his abilities, as God has endowed him, to their utter- 
most for the accomplishment of the object of Christ's 
mission to this world. 

2. Our King came into the world to bring the 
world back to his Father. The whole world had 
gone away from God, insomuch there were none 
that " Sought after God," " none that did good, no, 
not one,'' "all had become unprofitable.'' 

Our business is to bring the world, even the whole 
world, to Christ the Son of God, that He may, ac- 
cording to the covenant made before the world was, 
bring the world back to His Father again. What a 
grand mission is ours ! To work with Christ to 
bring a lost world to God, li that the world through 
Him might be saved." Does it not invoke and de- 
serve the consecration and devotion of all our ran- 
somed powers \ And shall any of us prove recreant 
to our high calling by employing anything less than 
the full measure of our several abilities in our en- 
deavors to achieve the purposes of our King, in his 
mission to this sin-cursed earth of ours? "She 



348 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

hath done what she could " was the grandest enco- 
mium ever pronounced by Divinity upon humanity, 
and yet it only expresses the true boundary of 
Christian obligation and duty. What we possess 
ability to do, we can do, and what we can do, the 
law of Christ makes it our duty to do, that the world 
through Him may be saved. How exalted and how 
sublime is our high calling. 

II. Our King proposes to save this world through 

the agency of organizations which lie denominates 

His Churches, and Ijy the instrumentality of the 

people of whom lie has been pleased to compose His 

Churches. 

1. The first of these churches was organized by 
our King himself, and to that church, through His 
Apostles, was the law given teaching them how to 
institute or organize other churches. This law we 
denominate "The Great Commission,'- which is 
more fully quoted by Matthew than by any of the 
Evangelists. (See Matthew 20:18-20.) This stat- 
ute of our King contains and confers all the power, 
all the authority and all the prerogatives necessary 
to be employed by His people, in all time to come, 
for the fulfillment and consummation of His and 
their mission in the world. Xo need of any further 
legislation, by way of amendments, changes, substi- 
tutions or otherwise; it being the simple duty of all 
church builders, in all the ages to come, to strictly 
adhere to the pattern here given, by executing the 
plan and exercising the authority herein conferred. 

2. To this people, thus called, qualified and sane- 



The Work of the Baptists an Urgent Work. 349 

titled, and their successors, who shall possess simi- 
lar endowments, both spiritual and ceremonial, is 
this great statutory law given, by the King, and to 
none others. It is not the right of every ecclesias- 
tical adventurer, or every church cub bier, who may 
choose to experiment in holy things, to come along 
and assume to institute organizations under the au- 
thority of this law. and dignify them by calling them 
Churches. Such authority belongs only to such 
people as possess such qualifications as distinguished 
those to whom it was first given. 

If this world is ever evangelized, and saved from 
the pollution and guilt of sin, and the thraldom of 
religious superstition and error, it must be done 
through the agency of such organizations as the first 
church, and the labors of such people as those who 
composed the first church. The task enjoined in 
this commission is such an one that no other institu- 
tion or people can hope to accomplish. 

3. But the question arises in the mind of some 
(not in ours >, where are such organizations and such 
a people to be found in this age I 

We answer without doubt, wavering or equivoca- 
tion that such organizations and such a people can 
alone be found among the Baptist churches and 
Baptist people of the present age. If proof is de- 
manded, here it is : (1) This is a commission which 
enjoys first the making of disciples. (2) The bap- 
tizing of those who are made disciples. (3) Their 
instruction in all the subsequent duties pertaining to 
their profession. 



350 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 



From this brief analysis of the commission it must 
be seen that the Baptists are the only people whose 
practice is in accord with its requirements, and hence 
they are the only people who can execute it without 
the destruction of their own theory and practice. If 
this is a commission to baptize believers or the re- 
generated only, which seems to be clear, then it fol- 
lows inevitably that those who baptize in order to 
the remission of past sins, and those who baptize 
unconscious infants, cannot be the people who are 
authorized to act under this commission, nor can 
they execute it in harmony with their views of the 
subject and design of gospel baptism. Moreover, 
if the baptism enjoined in this law is immersion, as 
we unqualifiedly hold, then it follows that no people 
who hold that baptism is rightly administered by 
sprinkling, or pouring, can be the people to whom 
Christ has entrusted the responsibility of converting 
this world under the provisions of this law. 

For these reasons, and many others that we might 
mention, we hold, and believe, that the commission 
to evangelize this world was given by the Lord Jesus 
Christ to an organization and a people, who are now 
only rightly represented by Baptist churches and 
Baptist people. 

In taking this position we are not to be under- 
stood as either holding or saying that there are no 
Christians outside of Baptist churches. We cannot 
if we would hold such a position, since we insist 
that every one must first be made a Christian before 
he can scripturally receive baptism, or become a 



Tlie Work of the Baptists an Urgent Work. 351 

church member; hence we are the last people under 
the sun to be accused of unchristianizing any one 
because he is not a Baptist, since we hold that none 
are fit to become Baptists who are not first made 
Christians. Therefore we recognize the claims of 
all who profess to be Christians, especially if they 
illustrate the fact in their lives, and for them we cul- 
tivate Christian fellowship, but we do not admit their 
claim as constituting gospel churches, or as possess- 
ing the right or scriptural authority to administer 
under the commission, whose provisions and require- 
ments they both ignore and contradict; nor do we 
believe that such institutions or societies can ever 
succeed in the world's conversion. With what aw- 
ful and solemn responsibility are we as Baptists in- 
vested, if it be true that to us the great King has 
intrusted the great enterprise of bringing a lost and 
ruined world back to God and eternal salvation. 
And yet it is upon this ground that we are compelled 
to stand, by the very force of the doctrines that we 
hold and teach. May the Lord make us "sufficient 
for these things.'' 

III. The King supplies His people a?id His 
churches with all the means necessary to the accom- 
plishment of His busi?iess. 

1. Are numbers necessary to success ? While we 
need not insist that our strength consists in num- 
bers, for our King can make the few and the weak 
equal to any task He may assign them, yet we must 
not ignore the fact that there is a degree of power in 
numbers. Well, these we have in ample sufficiency; 



352 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

if the j were only properly and earnestly consecrated 
to their work, what might we under God achieve ? 

Here in our own beloved District Association we 
have nearly six thousand communicants, where 
forty-eight years ago a few feeble churches, with 
only about six hundred members, associated them- 
selves under the name of the Daviess County Baptist 
Association. "What hath God wrought in our 
very midst '. " 

We have here in our own boundary numbers suffi- 
cient to occupy every inch of our territory with Bap- 
tist preaching, Baptist Sunday-schools, and Baptist 
churches, were we only devoted to our Master's 
business as we should be. 

But how is it in our old beloved and honored 
Commonwealth ? The same may be said of our own 
association. From only about thirty-five thousand 
fifty years a^o we have increased to 1,818 churches 
and 202,264 communicants, while we baptized in the 
last year in Kentucky alone 12,426. With this 
mighty force we should occupy every valley and 
hilltop, while the praises of our King should sweep 
and sway the mountains of Eastern Kentucky like a 
breath from Heaven, and every desert and solitary 
place be made to bud and bloom like a rose. 

Then extend your survey to our Southern sunny 
land, and see two millions and a quarter of our 
brethren and sisters composing 14,874 white 
churches, with a net increase last year of 528 
churches, and a net increase of membership of 
50,105; while the total number of churches, white 



The Work of the Baptists an Urgent Work. 353 

and colored, in the South, is 24,205, and the total 
number of baptisms last year 121,578. 

Now extend the width of your observation and 
embrace the United States and we find 31,891 
churches aggregate nearly three millions member- 
ship. 

Then widen your view and take in the world and 
learn that we have 37,354 churches, comprising a 
membership of almost four millions, constituting by 
far the largest converted membership of any sect or 
denomination on the face of the earth. " :f 

2. Are learning, gifts, talents and genius necessary 
to enable us to accomplish the business of our King? 

These we have now in full proportion to our num- 
bers. Once in this country we were branded with 
such epithets as "low." ''ignorant" and "vulgar" 
by the aristocrats of the State establishment, who 
arrested us, and imprisoned and whipped and fined 
and banished us, adjudging us far more worthy of 
such treatment than of church privileges and com- 
munion tables, but now the complaint is that we will 
not recognize their churches and ordinances and 
commune with them. What a change has come over 
the spirit of their dreams. 

Now we have not less than 125 chartered institu- 
tions of learning in this country, with property 
valued at more than twenty-five millions. We have 
also in this country not less than one hundred reli- 
gious and denominational newspapers and periodi- 



* These figures have been greatly increased since this sermon was 
preached. There are now full 5.000,000 Baptists in the world. 

23 



354 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

cals, read, it is estimated, by nearly or quite half of 
the entire population, while the attainments of our 
scholars, and the gifts, talents and genius of our 
orators and ministers would lose nothing in compar- 
ison with the most polished and gifted sons of this 
continent. 

3. Is wealth necessary to the world's conversion ? 
We have it also in full proportion to our numbers. 
Baptists own more acres in the bounds of the Da- 
viess County Association than any other people. 
They possess greater wealth than any other denomi- 
nation in the State, while in the whole South there 
is no other sect that can compare with us in the ex- 
tent of our worldly possessions. What we want is 
not more wealth, but a higher, deeper and stronger 
consecration to our King's business, in a more lib- 
eral use of the means that He has given us. 

4. Is it necessary that our principles and practices 
be universally admitted by other religious sects in 
order that we lead a fallen world to Christ 2 This 
we enjoy in a measure, and to a degree that no other 
party in religion can boast. What is it that we hold 
and teach in religion that is positively denied by any 
of the so-called evangelical sects ? 

Can you call to mind just one of our denomina- 
tional peculiarities which is not admitted to be true 
by any of our sectarian adversaries ? When we 
affirm our doctrines and practices, who is it that says 
we are wrong ? Let us recall just a few of our most 
prominent peculiarities in teaching and practice, 
that we may see how the case stands. 



The Work of the Baptists an Urgent Work. 355 

What is it more than anything else divides the so- 
called orthodox sects i It is the question of baptism 
as it relates to the subject and action. What do 
Baptists affirm, or rather what are they required to 
affirm on these points \ Certainly nothing more 
than what they believe and do. Well, what do they 
believe touching the subject of baptism \ They 
affirm that a true and penitent believer in the Lord 
Jesus Christ is a scriptural subject of Christian bap- 
tism. Who says they are not \ Not one, since all 
agree that a believer ought to be baptized according 
to the Scriptures, and hence all religious sects which 
practice water baptism baptize believers whenever 
and wherever they have the opportunity. 

Take next the action of baptism, upon which Bap- 
tists are objected to because of the narrowness of 
their opinions. What do they affirm concerning the 
mode or action of baptism \ Why, simply that im- 
mersion in water is scriptural baptism. Where is 
one to be found, whose opinion is worth a farthing, 
who does not admit the truth of what we affirm? 
He that would negative this proposition is either 
ignorant or dishonest; hence in either case his opin- 
ion would not be entitled to respect. In confirma- 
tion of our positions on the subject and action of 
baptism we might quote a volume of the admissions 
of those who baptize infants and substitute sprink- 
ling and pouring for baptism, but neither time nor 
space will allow. Suffice it to say, however, that 
our religious adversaries do not object to what we 
believe and do in these matters, but rather to 



356 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

what we do not believe, and to what we do not 
practice. Therefore, in all controversies with 
Fedobaptist sects we have never jet found one suffi- 
ciently presumptuous to negative what we affirm on 
these questions. Hence we sees" f he high advantage 
ground occupied by the Baptists, made doubly strong 
by the universal admissions of our opponents. 
These admissions greatly facilitate our work in 
bringing the religious world back to correct reli- 
gious opinions and practices. 

5. Is a united Christian sentiment necessary to the 
accomplishment of our King's business in the world? 
We answer frankly that such seems to be the em- 
phatic teachings of the Word. Our Lord's great in- 
tercessory prayer, as we have it in the 17th chapter 
of John's gospel, is full of this sentiment; hence 
such petitions as the following abound in that pray- 
er : "Holy Father, keep through thine own name 
those whom thou hast given me, that they may be 
one, as we are " — John 17:11. " That they all may 
be one, even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in 
thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world 
may believe that thou hast sent me," "And the 
glory which thou hast given me 1 have given them, 
that they may be one, even as we are one; I in 
them, and thou in me, that they may be made per- 
fect in one, and that the world may know that thou 
hast sent me ''—John 17:21,22,23. 

From these passages it is easily inferred that it is 
the great desire of the heart of our King that His 
people shall be one, and that He conceived such 



The Work of the Baptists an Urgent Work. 357 

unity among His people would facilitate the world's 
conversion. Hence the subject of our present in- 
quiry is eminently pertinent, which is "a unified 
Christian sentiment necessary to the accomplishment 
of our King's business." Now, in view of what has 
been said in the preceding arguments, and in order 
to obviate the necessity of a protracted argument 
here, we will simply affirm, and leave the reader to 
make the application and the investigation, that the 
Baptists are the only people on the face of the earth 
who hold such principles of faith and practice in re- 
ligion as enable them to present such terms of union 
to all true Christians as all can accept, and that, too, 
without the least sacrifice of principle or conscience. 
Here we might illustrate elaborately, but content 
ourselves by simply asking what sacrifice has a 
true Christian to make in accepting and doing that 
which he already admits is true and right \ In ask- 
ing others to become Baptists we are only suggest- 
ing that they take such a step toward the unification 
of the Christian world, as they already declare to be 
right, and therefore cannot involve themselves in 
the slightest sacrifice of principle. Baptists are 
accused of great bigotry and selfishness, in that they 
are opposed to all Christians communing together. 
We are not opposed to the communion of all Chris- 
tians, but we first desire the union of all Christians 
in principle and practice, and then there would be a 
scriptural consistency in our communion at the 
Lord's table; wi for how can two walk together ex- 
cept they be agreed \ " So far from our being op- 



358 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

posed to the union of all true Christians, we will 
make a proposition looking to a universal union of 
all God's children, which no other denomination 
will dare make, which is, that if all the Pedobaptist 
sects will only agree among themselves upon two 
questions, and that said agreement shall be reached 
without a solitary dissenting voice, then the Baptists 
will pledge their sacred honor to accept the agree- 
ment thus reached by Pedobaptists themselves as 
the basis of union among all Christians for all time 
to come. The two questions which they must settle, 
and that as a unit, and which, when once agreed 
upon, will insure a perfect and consistent union among 
all Christians, are these : (1) Who ought to be bap- 
tized ? (2) HOW SHOULD THEY BE BAPTIZED ? Let 

the Pedobaptist world agree upon these two ques- 
tions and the Baptist shall not ask a question, but 
simply accept the situation. 

And now if Pedobaptists refuse to accept and act 
upon this proposition, we shall have just grounds 
upon which to doubt their sincerity in so frequently 
insisting upon uniting in communion. Now we 
serve notice upon all Pedobaptists that they must 
either accept our proposition for union, which all 
must admit is most reasonable and liberal, or they 
must forever hereafter close their lips and hush their 
pretentious howl against Baptists about close com- 
munion. Now let us have peace either in one way 
or the other. We shall see what we shall see, and 
if we see anything, we shall see all true, consistent 
and unprejudiced Christians coming into the Baptist 



The Work of the Baptists an Urgent Work. 359 

churches, since it will be found to be a moral and 
utter impossibility for Pedobaptists ever to agree 
upon the two questions propounded, among them- 
selves, without being forced upon Baptist ground. 
Pedobaptists are not agreed upon these two ques- 
tions, nor have they ever been, nor can they ever 
be, without becoming Baptists. 

6. Is access to the nations of the world necessary 
to success ? 

Only a few years ago most of the nations in 
heathen lands were locked up against the gospel, 
while only partial protection was enjoyed by our 
missionaries in any of the foreign fields. 

We asked God to unlock the doors of the heathen 
in distant lands, and he has done it. There is now 
scarcely a nation under the sun to which our mis- 
sionaries cannot go. and enter and dwell there with 
reasonable and comparative security so far as the 
governments and rulers are concerned. Of course 
there are yet difficulties to encounter after legal ob- 
structions have been removed, arising from the ig- 
norance, superstition and barbarism of the people, 
but the nations are now accessible to the herald of 
salvation, so that many of the trials and sufferings 
encountered and endured by Carey and Judson are 
now unknown. What hath God wrought in answer 
to our prayers ! 

Now nation after nation is wheeling into line and 
becoming the intelligent and loyal subjects of our 
King, while still other kindreds and tribes are 
stretching forth their hands unto God. crying, 



360 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or ITefenders of the Faith. 

u Come over and help us." And while God has 
opened wide the doors to the nations, by His special 
providences, and in the exercise of His discrimi- 
nating grace and power, He is beckoning and bid- 
ding us to enter. How certainly is God making 
us to feel that His business requires haste. How 
thankful we should be that our King has given us 
access to the nations. 

7. Are educated, pious, consecrated, willing, 
God-fearing and soul-loving young men necessary 
both at home and abroad, in order to the success of 
our King's business in the world ? 

How deeply we felt this need in the early years 
of our missionary operations, both in this land and 
in heathen fields. How fervent and earnest were 
the prayers of our people only a few years ago to the 
God of the harvest that He would send more and 
better qualified laborers into His harvest, but espe- 
cially that He would put it into the hearts of young 
men and women to enter the fields that were already 
white to the harvest; and how wonderfully has He 
also answered our prayers by inflaming the hearts 
of so many pious young people with burning desires 
to go forth bearing the precious seeds of the gospel. 
Hundreds of such are saying, in the language of 
young Samuel, "Here am I, send me." Instead 
of our having to hunt and seek diligently to find 
a suitable one to send here, there, or elsewhere, 
now many noble young men and women, with souls 
aflame with a holy zeal for God and humanity, are 
voluntarily offering themselves for the numerous 



The Work of the Baptists an Urgent Work. 361 

fields which God, in His providence, has thrown 
open before them. All that now prevents us from 
sending a missionary into every open door is the 
lack of more consecrated Baptist pocket-books and 
Baptist property. O ! that the King may open the 
hearts of His subjects in this country as He has the 
■doors of the nations and the hearts of our young 
people. 

IY. Baptists have the strongest assurances of Di- 
vine favor to encourage them in the conviction that it 
is the King's fixed purpose that they shall take the 
lead in every grand movement that shall ultimately 
residt in this world's evangelization. 

Let it not be thought that this proposition an- 
nunciates merely a vain or fulsome declaration, in 
the absence of well-grounded reasons to sustain it. 
* ' We are not mad, but speak the words of truth 
and soberness." From the first dawn of the gospel 
era, and from the first day of the introduction of 
the gospel dispensation, we have full and incontro- 
vertible proof of this purpose upon the part of the 
Great Founder of our faith. 

1. The first gospel preacher the world ever saw 
was a Baptist missionary; a Baptist not only in 
name, but also in profession, faith and practice. 
The evidences of this fact are sufficient to carry con- 
viction to all unprejudiced minds. His preaching 
was Baptistic, requiring those who received his bap- 
tism first to give evidence of conversion in such 
penitence as indicated the genuineness of their re- 
pentance. Ko others were baptized by him. When 



362 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

the proud and self-righteous Pharisee and the self- 
important Sadducee came clamorously demanding 
baptism at his hands, founding their claim to the 
ordinance upon flesh and blood qualifications, they 
were promptly rejected, and unqualifiedly denounced 
as a "generation of poisonous reptiles,'' seeking 
ingress into a spiritual kingdom upon the ground of 
natural descent. 

It must be clear to every one that the Baptist 
harbinger did not baptize his subjects in order to 
the remission of their sins, nor did he administer 
the sacred ordinance to unconscious infants. 

Now of all the church builders that have suc- 
ceeded him through the centuries, where can one be 
found steadfastly adhering to John's example, save 
the Baptist ? This being a fact of fundamental 
value, ought to be sufficient in itself to establish 
the truth of my proposition, but other proofs of the 
same fact are not wanting in a still further investi- 
gation of John's ministry. The places whither he 
resorted for the purpose of administering baptism, 
and his actions, and that of those who received bap- 
tism at his hands, seem to indicate that he must 
have been a Baptist. His resort for the adminis- 
tration of baptism was the Jordan, a flowing river, 
and to " Enon near to Salim, because there was 
much water there/' Rivers and places where there 
was much water have, through the ages, been the 
favorite resorts for Baptists. Why go out into the 
wilderness, and not only to the river, but down into 
both the river and the water that w T as in the river, 



The Work of the Baptists an Urgent Work. 363 

as our King must have done, for " He came up out 
of the water," if baptism could have been properly 
administered by either pouring or sprinkling a few 
drops upon the forehead ? Who can believe that 
John baptized in any other way than in the way 
Baptists now baptize \ Well, if he preached like 
Baptists preach, and required the same qualifications 
for baptism that Baptists require, and then baptized 
his converts as Baptists now baptize their converts, 
why was he not a Baptist ? And if he was a Bap- 
tist, then it is a thing made out that God designed 
that Baptists should lead in the great enterprise of 
converting the world. If this was His purpose then, 
it is His purpose yet; hence it is vain for others to 
undertake a work that God intends shall be done by 
the Baptists. 

Moreover, Jesus Christ, the founder of the Bap- 
tist denomination, was also a Baptist missionary, as 
is evidenced by his preaching, by the character of 
those baptized in connection with his ministry (for 
they were first made disciples ), by the manner in 
which he himself was baptized, and finally by the 
great commission he gave for the government of his 
people in all their movements in the great affair of 
bringing a lost world to salvation. That commis- 
sion is the strongest Baptist document, and the most 
thorough digest of Baptist polity that the w^orld 
ever saw. The whole of this law of the New Testa- 
ment is but a divine enunciation of Baptist princi- 
ples and practices. 

2. The first revival at pentecost, after the giving 



36-4 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

of the commission, was simply a Baptist missionary 
meeting, held in Jerusalem only ten days after the 
ascension of our King from the top of one of the 
high mountains of Galilee, as is easily inferable 
from the transactions of that memorable occasion. 
See Acts 2, chap. — . For proofs of the truth of this 
statement we need only to compare the transactions 
of that occasion with the manner in which Baptists 
usually conduct their meetings. (a) The public 
services were introduced by the preaching of the 
gospel, (b) By the power of the gospel thus 
preached, and attended by the Holy Spirit, those 
who heard were convicted of sin, and anxiously 
asked "What shall we do? v (c) Then they were 
instructed, just as we now instruct the convicted 
sinner, that was, to repent, confess, obtain the re- 
mission of sins, and then be baptized in testimony 
of the fact that their sins had been washed away by 
the blood of Jesus, (d) That such only were bap- 
tized on that occasion as ''gladly received the 
word " is further proof of the character of the meet- 
ing; that is, none were baptized who did not or 
could not receive the gospel "gladly;" hence they 
were not baptized in order to the remission of sins, 
nor were there any unconscious infants baptized. 
{e) That there was not a word uttered about the 
Lord's Supper until after the converts were bap- 
tized, added to the church, had enjoyed her fellow- 
ship, and exhibited their steadfastness in the faith. 
If this was not a Baptist meeting, then pray tell 
us what sort of a meeting was it ? And if it was a 



The Work of the Baptists an Urgent Work. 365 

Baptist meeting, then it supports our claim ;i that it 
is God's fixed purpose that we shall take the lead in 
the propagation of the gospel." 

3. As another proof of this same fact it is most 
certainly worthy of mention that God sent an angel 
by night and liberated Peter and John from the 
common prison and brought them forth and said, 
" Go stand and speak in the temple to the people all 
the words of this life. "—Acts 5:18,19,20. Let it 
be remembered that Peter and John were two of the 
Baptist preachers who were engaged in the pente- 
costal meeting. 

1. By visions and revelations one of these Bap- 
tist preachers is compelled to go and introduce 
first the gospel among the Gentile heathen. — Acts 
10:1-18. 

Here we have another proof of the divine pur- 
pose in- compelling his chosen ministers and people 
to take the lead in disseminating the gospel among 
the nations, insomuch we shall hereinafter see how 
God has compelled the Baptists to go forth, when 
they have hesitated to go under the broad commis- 
sion, the first word of which is "Go." This fact is 
early illustrated in the divine dealing with the first 
Baptist church at Jerusalem. It is more than prob- 
able that that church would have been content to 
have reposed upon her grand achievements in her 
first great revival, and continued to have luxuriated 
upon the grand victory she had won in a single day, 
without making any further sacrifices for the further 
spread of the gospel, but God intended that they 



366 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

should be missionaries, that they should " go, " and 
therefore He sent down upon them such a persecu- 
tion that they were scattered abroad, and it is said 
with emphasis "they went everywhere preaching 
the word," but devout men had already carried 
Stephen to his burial, as the first fruits of the perse- 
cution that made all the church at Jerusalem mis- 
sionaries. Acts 7:54-60; 8:2-4. 

Then Philip went clown to the city of Samaria 
and preached Christ unto them, and it is said, as a 
result of his preaching there, that "there was great 
joy in that city," for the reason that "the people 
with one accord gave heed unto those things that 
Philip spake/' — Acts 8:5-8. Truly it may be said, 
in the language of old Watts, "God moves in a 
mysterious way, His wonders to perform."' His 
purposes cannot fail; His people must bear the news 
of salvation to " all nations." But we must take a 
few examples from God's dealings with the Baptists 
in more modern times. 

5. When in the wisdom of God the time had 
fully come that He would more directly engage the 
English speaking race in the spread of the gospel, 
and his providence contemplated the inauguration of 
modern missions in foreign heathen lands, he began 
by first converting William Carey from the errors of 
pedobaptism to the faith of the Baptists, notwith- 
standing he had been reared and educated to regard 
Baptists with supreme and sovereign contempt. 

Being endowed with superior intellectual powers, 
and a most wonderful capacity for mastering the 



The Work of the Baptists an Urgent Worlc. 367 

languages, and with a soul aflame with the mission- 
ary spirit, God saw fit to pass by all the crowned 
heads, mitred brows, of all the thrones and king- 
doms of earth, and enter the humble shoe cobbler's 
domicile and call William Carey to stand in the fore- 
front and preach the unsearchable riches of Christ 
to a heathen world. . For many long and weary 
months he sat upon his shoe bench with the map of 
the world before him, estimating the vast fields of 
heathenish night, and the immeasurable extent of 
superstitious darkness, while his bosom heaved with 
anxious solicitude, and his heart palpitated with fer- 
vent love, while his streaming eyes wet with their 
tears his hand and hammer as he plied his daily vo- 
cation. But he could not remain in that shop. God 
had another for him. He could not any longer en- 
dure the unutterable tortures of a perturbed soul and 
conscience, while myriads of heathen souls were an- 
nually going down to woe. He could contain him- 
self no longer; he must doff his shoemaker's apron 
and throw down the hammer and last, and appeal to 
the English-speaking children of God to come to the 
rescue and save a sinking world. 

It was at a meeting of the Nottingham Associa- 
tion on the 30th day of May, 1792, when preaching 
from the text, " Enlarge the place of thy tent, and 
let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habita- 
tion; spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen 
thy stakes'' — Is. 54:2, that he divided his subject 
into the two following heads, which have made his 
name immortal: 1. Ci Expect great things from 



368 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

God;*' 2. " Attempt great things for God.'* With 
these as his motto and with victory for our King or 
death upon his banner, he stirred the British Empire 
from center to circumference, and ultimately lifted 
the standard of the cross amid the unbroken dark- 
ness of the East Indies, and illuminated the Burman 
Empire with the light of the Star of Bethlehem. 

Who, with these facts before them, will dare say 
that the God of Missions was indifferent as to the 
faith of the instrument he would at first employ to 
break the long night of heathenish darkness ? Why 
was it that Carey was not sent without first being 
made a Baptist \ 

6. Take another example : When God would 
awaken American Baptists and engage them actively 
in the great work of missions, He did it in the most 
unlooked-for manner by converting two Pedobaptist 
missionaries to Baptist principles as they were cross- 
ing the vast deep on their voyage to the land of 
heathendom. The reference is to Adoniram Judson 
and Luther Rice, who having received a most thor- 
ough equipment in a finished education, were sent 
out by the American Board of Commissioners for 
Foreign Missions, which was a Congregational Pres- 
byterian organization, originated for the express 
purpose of sending out these young men, whose 
souls were fired with a holy zeal for the heathen. 

Knowing that Wm. Carey and a number of co- 
laborers were already in the field whither they were 
going, and knowing that they were Baptists, and 
anticipating that they would be likely to encounter 



The Work of the Baptists an Urgent Work. 369 

their peculiar views on baptism, Judson and Rice 
deemed it wise to post up on the subject, and hence 
they made the baptismal question the subject of spe- 
cial study on their protracted voyage. The result 
was their sound conversion to the faith of the Bap- 
tists; insomuch, that upon landing in the heathen 
field, they made haste to hunt Wm. Carey and his 
friends and ask baptism at their hands. Mr. Judson 
received baptism at the hands of Mr. Carey on the 
6th of September, 1812, while Mr. Rice received, 
baptism at the hands of Mr. Ward, who was a help- 
er to Mr. Carey, on the 1st of November, 1812. 
Their change of denominations left them in a foreign 
land and on hostile shores without support. Ameri- 
can Baptists at the time had no foreign missionary 
organization, but the action of these two heroic 
young men set on flame the great heart of American 
Baptists, and the "American Baptist Missionary 
Union " was called into existence, while Judson 
soon received assurances of support from his newly- 
made friends. That was a dark and sad hour when, 
after Judson and Rice had received gospel baptism 
on a far distant shore, they sat down to consult as to 
what they should attempt to do. After much medi- 
tation and prayer, Judson said to Rice, i; I will go 
down into the well if you will hold the rope,'' which 
meant that he would stay there and take all the 
risks if Rice would return to this country and en- 
deavor to arouse the American Baptists on missions. 
He came, and, like a comet, with a lighted torch in 
his hand, he flew over the States of the nation like 



370 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

one having the everlasting gospel to preach, and 
truly the Baptist churches in the United States were 
set on fire with an all-consuming zeal for the cause 
of foreign missions. But we can pursue this thrill- 
ing story no further at present, but simply haste to 
draw some practical conclusions from this marvelous 
record. Who can consider these facts and not see 
the hand of God in the change of their religious 
views by Judson and Rice % Is it asking too much 
of our readers that they shall believe that divine 
providence did interfere to prevent the errors of 
Pedobaptists from being propagated in the land 
whither these missionaries were going ? What 
stronger proof have we need of to satisfy the most 
skeptical of its being the King's pleasure that the 
Baptists shall take the lead in all the great move- 
ments having for their object the world's evangeliza- 
tion ? Indeed, such a conclusion seems to be inev- 
itable. 

8. But the most wonderful exhibition that the 
world has ever seen of God's fixed purpose that the 
Baptists shall have the lead in all the moral and reli- 
gious revolutions of the age is. to be seen in the 
miraculous conversion, together with all that led to 
it, and in the subsequent career of Alberto J. Diaz, 
of Cuba. Where is there anything like it, either in 
the history of ancient or modern times ? To hear 
the facts sounds like the recital of a fanciful ro- 
mance. We can scarcely believe what seems so 
marvelous, notwithstanding we have the testimony 
of the most unimpeachable witnesses, who have been 



The Work of the Baptists an Urgent Work. 371 

to Cuba and seen the things whereof they affirm. It 
is truly marvelous in our eves how this young Cuban 
drifted into the army of the Insurgents;* was about 
to be captured, to avoid which lie, with other com- 
rades, sought to evade his pursuers by committing 
himself to the gulf current, floating on fragments of 
timber, but being drifted out seaward was thus "a 
day and a night in the deep," but being observed by 
a passing vessel he was taken aboard, and the ves- 
sel being bound to New York, he was landed in 
that city; and having hitherto studied medicine, he 
concluded to make the study of the eye a specialty, 
but soon fell sick in a private boarding-house in 
Brooklyn, and being kindly cared for by Miss Alice 
Tucker, who becoming interested in him when death 
seemed to be at the door, and being a pious young 
member of a Baptist church, she frequently read 
from a certain book, and prayed aloud for him, but 
by whose judicious nursing the crisis was passed, 
and convalescing he asked what book it was she 
read, when she talked to herself, as he called it; be- 
ing told that it was the Bible, and that she had been 
praying for him, he very much desired to know 
more about that book, and the meaning of prayer. 
Finally a copy in the Spanish language was given 
him, and by it he was led to Christ, and feeling the 
love of G-od in his heart, after diligent investigation,, 
was led to seek membership in the Baptist church 
presided over by Dr. McArthur, and was by him 
baptized; and now finding his soul stirred within 

* This refers to the Cuban rebellion twenty years ago. 



372 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders; of the Faith. 

him for the salvation of his kinsmen and brethren 
after the flesh, he returns to Cuba to tell them what 
a dear Saviour he has found — surprised at their 
blindness of mind and stupidity of soul, he is ready 
to despair, but urged on by his own convictions and 
experience, he would again face his difficulties, and 
so persisted through the most formidable discourage- 
ments, until under God lie has unlocked the doors of 
Cuba to the gospel, his family has been converted, 
several Baptist churches organized, hundreds of con- 
verts baptized, and now more than eight thousand 
membership — the galling yoke of Catholic tyranny 
badly broken — while it is estimated that more than 
one-half of the inhabitants of the island are under 
Baptist influence. Now consider that Episcopal- 
ians, Presbyterians and Methodists had before this 
signally failed to secure a footing in Cuba after large 
expenditures of money and manj self-denying la- 
bors, does it not appear that the position taken in 
this discourse is true; which is, that our King in- 
tends that the Baptists shall lead this world to him- 
self ? The indications in Cuba at the present time 
are that in a very short period Cuba is destined to 
become a Baptist nation. ''The Lord hath done 
great things for us, whereof we are glad."' 

V. The final thought suggested by the text is, that 
our work as Baptists requires haste. If the positions 
now assumed in this discourse are well taken, what in- 
dustry, liberality, self -denial and urgency should char- 
acterize our efforts to x>ossess this world for our Master. 
Surely our work is an urgent business. 



The Work of the Baptists an Urgent Work. 373 

1. Because our work is far reaching in its conse- 
quences, and so vastly important as it relates to the 
future religious interests and destinies of mankind. 
What we believe and do are the powers that must 
determine the final religious status of universal hu- 
manity. If this world is to be enlightened, elevated, 
liberated and saved, to say the least, Baptists must 
perform the most conspicuous part. Indeed, it is 
even questionable whether or not we are being facil- 
itated in our work by what others are doing. How 
responsible our positions, how solemn our vast under- 
taking. 

2. We should be in haste because the Master 
seems to be in a heavenly hurry. See how his great 
and strange providences are wheeling the nations 
into line. How mysterious are the wonder-working 
ways of the Almighty God whom we profess to love. 
What a grand and awful thing it is to live in the 
present age, "an age on ages telling." 

3. We should make haste because the great oppor- 
tunities and possibilities that now environ us will 
soon glide away forever. What our hands find to 
do let us do with our might. ;t Work while it is 
day. for the night cometh when no man can work." 
There are doors now opened before us by God's own 
hand, that may soon be closed to us forever. Why 
stand here all the day idle \ Why not thrust in the 
sickle and reap a sheaf for the Master's use in 
eternity \ 

4. We should make haste because the wicked one, 
together with all his subalterns are making haste to 



374 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

mislead, deceive and destroy. The devil never 
sleeps, he is always alert, watchful and vigilant, 
seeking whom he may devour. While we sleep he 
works. While we stand idle he plies all his hellish 
ingenuity to embarrass and hinder our work. While 
we "forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as 
the manner of so many of our modem Baptists is."' 
the devil holds high carnival in every city, town and 
cross-roads, aiding and abetting the grossest and 
most flagrant violations of the sanctity of the Holy 
Sabbath, by running ponderous trains over almost 
all the railroads of the country, and by encouraging 
base ball sports, which is the "abomination of des- 
olation" to the morals of the community, while the 
laws of the land are impotent to protect good people 
in the pursuit of happiness, even on the. day made 
holy by Divine command. How long shall the 
Christian people of this country repose in indolence, 
while such outrages are being perpetrated against the 
peace and good order of religious society, and the 
dignity and sanctity of our boasted civilization \ 
When shall our "King reign in righteousness, and 
our Princes rule in judgment?" "Awake, awake; 
put on thy strength, O Zion, put on thy beautiful 
garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; for henceforth 
there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised 
and the unclean." 

5. We should make haste because every form and 
shape of religious errorists are making haste to prop- 
agate and plant their pernicious principles and doc- 
trines in every community in the length and breadth 



The Work of the Baptists an Urgent Work.. 375 

of the laud. Their success is our failure; their 
triumphs our defeats. Though a man be soundly 
converted in spirit, yet if he fall a victim of the mis- 
rule of false religious teaching, his second conver- 
sion is only made the more difficult, for men are not 
rightly nor scriptural ly converted until they are ready 
and willing to render unqualified and implicit obedi- 
ence to our King. How important that we enter and 
occupy every field. Now the doors to many neigh- 
borhoods and villages within the boundary of our 
own beloved Association are standing ajar for the 
entrance of our principles and faith, while the devo- 
tees of religious error are putting forth every effort 
to pre-occupy these places. What an incentive for 
us "to do with our might what our hands find to do." 
6. We should make haste because the time in 
which we can work is so exceedingly short. Already 
the day is far spent, and the night comes on. Many 
of our comrades and co-laborers are falling victims 
to the last enemy, which is death. Look back on 
the events of the year just ending and "see how the 
mighty have fallen.'' Where is Baker, and Taylor, 
and our own beloved Peay '{ Twelve months ago they 
stood shoulder to shoulder with us in the service of 
our King, but now they rest from their labors, and may 
God grant that their works may follow them. Many 
of us are standing upon the brink while the hoarse 
waves of the Jordan murmur at our feet. O, my 
brethren, what mean these numerous frosted heads 
before me to-day \ Ah ! these are the blossoms of 
eternity just lingering on the shores of time, waiting 



1*76 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

to be transplanted into the better land. O ! my 
brethren, let us "awake out of sleep, for now is our 
salvation nearer than when we believed." Let us 
remember that "the King's business requires haste." 
May the God of all grace be with you all. Amen. 

[This sermon has been published in tract form and 
has had a good circulation.] 




JOHN T. CHRISTIAN, D.D., LL.D. 



CHAPTER XV. 
ELD. JOHN T. CHRISTIAN, D.D., LL.D. 

John T. Christian was born, December 14, 1854, 
near Lexington, Ky. His family moved to Henry 
county, Ky., when he was six years old, and there 
he grew to manhood. 

He professed faith in Christ and joined the Camp- 
bellsburg church at the age of sixteen, under the 
preaching of Elder J. H. Spencer, that remarkable 
man and great preacher, who was loved and honored 
by Kentucky Baptists for over thirty years. 

The stalwart orthodoxy of John T. Christian may be 
partially accounted for by his coming under the in- 
fluence, at the very beginning of his religious life, 
of such a man as J. H. Spencer. Spencer's numer- 
ous protracted meetings were Baptist meetings. He 
4 'shunned not to declare all of the counsel of God," 
and his converts nearly all joined the church and 
became useful Baptists. 

Dr. Christian was educated at Bethel College, 
Russellville, Ky., and learned his theology, partially 
at least, under Dr. W. W. Gardner, than whom a 
safer, sounder Baptist has not lived in the South. 

In June, 1876, he graduated from that college 
with the Bachelor's Degree, and in 1880 the same 
institution conferred on him the degree of Master of 
Arts, and in 1888 the title of Doctor of Divinity. 

(377) 



378 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

All of these titles he richly deserves. Keachie Col- 
lege, La., in 1898, pronounced Dr. Christian a LL.D. 

Not only have the colleges recognized his ability, 
but the whole Baptist denomination has been influ- 
enced by his ready and powerful pen, and by his 
skill as a debater. Nobody thinks of Dr. Christian 
as an ordinary man. 

He was licensed to preach by the church at Camp- 
bellsburg, Ky. , in July, 1876. He became pastor 
in Tupelo, Miss., beginning in 1877, and served that 
church two years. He was afterward pastor of Sar- 
dis Church, in the same State, and went from there 
to the First Baptist Church, Chattanooga, Tenn., be- 
ginning there March, 1883. Here he preached for 
three years, and then became Secretary of Missions for 
Mississippi. In 1893, beginning June 1, he accepted 
the care of the historic East Church, Louisville, Ky., 
where he has since preached with great acceptance. 

Dr. Christian is a man sought after by the churches, 
and those who sit under his preaching become stronger 
Baptists and more aggressive soldiers of the cross. 

As an author he has but few equals. His book, 
entitled, "Immersion, The Act of Christian Bap- 
tism^ has gone through twelve editions, and is with- 
out an equal in that class of books. As a companion 
volume is his "Close Communion ," which has gone 
through six editions, and still finds a ready sale. 
"Americanism or Romanism, Which?" is a vigorous 
attack on Romanism, which has had a wide circula- 
tion, and it clearly and forcibly shows the danger 
American institutions are in from that source. "Did 



Eld. John T. Christian. D.D..LL.D. 379 

They Dip t " is a discussion of the practice of Eng- 
lish Baptists with regard to baptism prior to the year 
1641. This is a valuable addition to Baptist history. 
il Four Theories of Church Government," a neat 
pamphlet and an able discussion of the theories men- 
tioned. "Heathen and Infidel Testimonies to Jesus 
Christ," and "Blood of Jesus," are well prepared 
pamphlets of wide circulation. His latest book is 
entitled "Baptist History Vindicated." This is the 
most valuable history published in recent years. 
Facts, hitherto unknown, or imperfectly known, are 
brought to light in this able work. It has an "Ap- 
pendix, " entitled, "Testimony of Living Scholars of 
the Church of England to Immersion."' This is a 
valuable book and should be studied by all who care 
to know the facts discussed. 

No doubt many other books will be written by 
Dr. Christian during the many years which he shall 
probably yet live. He is only forty-five, and, if the 
Lord spares him for thirty or forty years of active 
service in the future, what may he not accomplish i 

The greatest service Dr. Christian has ever ren- 
dered to the denomination was his able defence of 
the Baptists against the attacks of Dr. William H. 
Whitsitt. The theories and vagaries of Dr.Whitsitt 
were met, and that without mercy. In that great 
discussion, Dr. Christian displayed greater famili- 
arity with the facts of history than any other man 
who took up his pen to write. He seemed to have 
already investigated every part of the subject, and 
the ease and strength manifested were a surprise to 



380 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

all. To read what he had to say was to be convinced 
that he had been thoroughly over the ground before 
the question was raised. 

His able defence of the Baptists at this most trying 
time won for him a place in this book and entitled 
him to the appellation of a "pillar of orthodoxy." 
His able article following this sketch, on "What 
Baptists Have Done for the World" is worth the 
price of this volume. 



WHAT BAPTISTS HAVE DONE FOR 
THE WORLD. 

BY JOHN T. CHRISTIAN, D.J). 

This subject is presented for the purpose, if pos- 
sible, to stimulate our people to loftier devotion and 
to nobler deeds of usefulness. I honor every man 
who has been true to God and labors for the up- 
building of our race. I especially love the history 
and traditions of Baptist people. I shall not in this 
paper undertake to say anything of the origin and 
history of the Baptist churches. As interesting and 
instructive as this would be I prefer to discuss an- 
other question. Have the people called Baptists been 
of any service to the world ? Have they been bear- 
ers of fruit % One hour of service is worth an age of 
being. 

I would have our young people, and our older 
ones too, to know something of the thrilling deeds 
of our fathers. The world has always been inter- 
ested in history, and men are better when they hear 
of good deeds. The Iliad of Homer is but a re- 
counting of the deeds of Grecian heroes. The books 
of Joshua and Judges are records of the martial 
deeds of the Jews. Full many a time an old sol- 
dier sits down, draws around him his children and 
grandchildren, and fights over his battles again. 
The outlines of the story which is set before you, 

(381) 



382 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

if studied in fullness and detail, would be of the 
sublimest interest to all. What have the Bap- 
tists done for the world ? I answer : 

1. Baptists have stood for the supreme authority 
of the Word of God. They do not acknowledge the 
binding authority of creeds. Their Confessions, 
from that of Schleitheim to the New Hampshire, are 
valuable as literature and as a historical statement 
of truth. They do not recognize as authoritative 
the historic practices of the church nor appeal to the 
decrees of the councils. The sayings of the fathers 
are no more than historical statements. Their ap- 
peal is not to the "fathers," but to Jesus Christ and 
the Apostles. Their sole recognized authority is the 
written word of the eternal God. All a Baptist de- 
sires to know upon any point of faith is, is it taught 
in the New Testament, and when God's mind is 
known on a point nothing more is needed. They 
think the Bible is a plain book, designed for com- 
mon people, and may be understood by all. They 
do not think that it requires commentaries and an 
infallible Pope in order to understand Christian du- 
ties. They think the Bible is the impregnable Rock 
of Ages and stands four square against every wind 
that blows; and, to use the words of another, ^ We 
congratulate ourselves that our campaign document 
is the most widely-circulated book in the world.'' 

The Baptists have translated the Bible into more 
languages than any other body of Christians. More 
than half the inhabitants of the globe are dependent 
upon Baptist translations for their knowledge of the 



What Baptists Have Bone for the World. 383 

Word of God. William Carey translated the New 
Testament into Bengali, and a similar blessing was 
conferred on China by Joshua Marshman, on Bur- 
mah by Adoniram Judson, on the Karens by Francis 
Mason, on the Assamese by Nathan Brown, and on 
the Telegas by Lyman Jewett. I am persuaded that 
Doctors Cone, Conant, Armitage, Wycoff, Everts, 
Hackett and others, through the Baptist Union, 
and the more recent agitations among Baptists, 
were largely influential in giving to the English- 
speaking people the Canterbury revision of the 
Scriptures. Thus the Baptists have made no small 
showing in Bible revision and translation. 

Baptists have done equally well in the promotion 
of the circulation of the Scriptures. Joseph Hughes, 
a Baptist preacher, from Wales, originated the plan 
of giving the Bible to the world. He founded, 
originated, fostered and named the British Foreign 
Bible Society. Some one has quaintly said that 
•*he was the hands and feet, as he had been the 
head of the institution." The missionary work of 
Carey had given a wonderful impetus to Bible circu- 
hition. He and his coadjutors, Ward and Marsh- 
man, made great progress in the translation of the 
Word of God. English Christians became much in- 
terested in these translations and large sums of 
money were contributed for their publication and 
circulation. This led to the foundation of a Bible 
Society for the world. 

Dr. Christopher Anderson, of Edinburgh, while 
tracing the influences which led to the formation of 



384 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

the British Foreign Bible Society, says : •'Such an 
enterprise (as that of Carey's), so warmly supported 
from home, could not possibly fail to have a power- 
ful reflective influence on the mother country, and 
more especially on the healthiest minds throughout 
Britain, who grounded their chief hope of permanent 
good on the sacred volume alone.'* Dr. Thomas 
Scott, the son of the great Bible expositor, in his me- 
moir of his father, says of Dr. Carey : "He is per- 
haps better entitled than any other individual to the 
praise of having the first impulse to the extraordi- 
nary exertions of the present age for the propagation 
of Christianity in the world.*' It is then to these 
four Baptist ministers, Dr. Carey, the Oriental 
Polyglot, and " Tindal of our times; *' Dr. Marsh- 
man, the accurate and pioneer translator of the 
whole Bible into the Chinese; William Ward, the 
finished printer in twenty oriental languages, and 
Joseph Hughes, the founder of the Bible Society, 
that this mighty work of Bible distribution, in for- 
eign lands, has been accomplished. 

The Baptists w T ere also the early promoters of the 
American Bible Society. In a few months after its 
organization they contributed no less than $170,000 
to that society. And they only withdrew from it 
because the society adopted what Baptists regarded 
as a narrow and sectarian policy, which was in 
direct violation of the plain principles of its organi- 
zation. 

2. Baptists have done a great thing for the world 
in preserving pure the ordinances of the gospel. 



What Baptists Have Done for the World. 385 

This may not 1)e the greatest achievement of the 
Baptists, but it is greatly worth the doing. They 
have constantly called a forgetting world back to 
the Word of God. The Baptists have retained in the 
western world, what the Greeks have done in the 
eastern, the act of Christian baptism. I shall per- 
mit a few scholars to testify on this point : 

Dr. John F. Hurst, the leading Bishop of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, says : "With respect 
to the mode of baptism, on which there has been 
much discussion, there can be no doubt in the age 
immediately succeeding the apostolic, immersion in 
water was nearly, if not quite, the universal cus- 
tom." (Short History of the Christian Church.) 

In the Douay Bible, with Hay dock's Notes, which 
received the official indorsement of Pope Pius IX., 
and is therefore the highest possible Roman Catholic 
authority, is the following comment on Matt. 3:6: 
44 Baptized. The word baptism signifies a washing, 
particularly when it is done by immersion or by dip- 
ping or plunging a thing under water, which was for- 
merly the ordinary way of administering the sacrament 
of baptism. But the Church, which cannot change 
the least article of Christian faith, is not so tied up 
in matters of discipline and ceremony. Not only the 
Catholic Church, but also the pretended reformed 
churches, have altered the primitive custom in giv- 
ing the sacrament of baptism, and now allow of bap- 
tism by sprinkling or pouring water upon the person 
baptized; nay, many of their ministers do it nowa- 
days by filliping a wet finger and thumb over the 

25 



386 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

child's head, which it is hard enough to call a bap- 
tizing in any sense." 

All the Jewish rabbis and Hebrew scholars admit 
that baptism is an immersion. This is the declara- 
tion of Rabbi Wise, of Cincinnati; Felsenthal, of 
Chicago; and Moses, of Louisville. Rabbi Moses 
says : " There is no doubt that the Baptists are right 
on that point." Prof. Franz Delitzsch, the re- 
nowned professor of Leipzig, wrote me just before 
his death that baptizo "signifies to immerse." 
Prof. S. R. Driver, perhaps the foremost Hebrew 
scholar in England, says of the word : " It is ren- 
dered to plunge," and this is " the meaning recog- 
nized by all authorities. The word does not mean 
to pour or to sprinkle." 

All of the late Greek critical scholarship is favor- 
able to the Baptists. The professors in all colleges, 
in this country and Great Britain, of every denomi- 
nation, recognize the seventh edition of Liddell and 
Scott as the best classical lexicon, and Thayer's New 
Testament lexicon as the best on the Scriptures. 
Dr. Gross Alexander, Yanderbilt University, com- 
mends Liddell and Scott and Thayer. Dr. Hodge, 
Princeton, says : " The best classical Greek lexicon 
is Liddell and Scott's. The best New Testament 
lexicon is Thayer's edition of Grimm." Prof. A. S. 
Wilkins, LL.D., Owens College, England, says : 
"You may fully trust the account you find in 
Thayer." Prof. G. E. Marmdin, Esq., M.A., Ex- 
aminer of Greek in the London University, says : 
" I think you will find a perfectly correct account of 



What Baptists Have Done for the World. 387 

the classical use of haptizo in Liddell and Scott's lex- 
icon." 

Now these two dictionaries, which are regarded 
as the standards by all scholars of all denominations, 
should satisfy all honest inquirers. Liddell and 
Scott define haptizo "to dip in or under water. " 
Thayer's definition is : " Boptizo, to dip repeatedly, 
to immerse, to submerge. In the ISew Testament 
it is used particularly of the rite of sacred ablution, 
first instituted by John the Baptist, afterward by 
Christ's command received by Christians and ad- 
justed to the nature and contents of their religion, 
viz. : an immersion in water. " 

But does not some other good lexicon define hap- 
tizo 4 ' to sprinkle or to pour ? " This is a natural 
and pertinent question, since many persons are 
known to practice sprinkling and pouring, which is 
called baptism. Can it be that such practices are 
without the support of one authoritative lexicon ? I 
have abundant material at hand to answer this ques- 
tion. The following question was asked of a num- 
ber of Professors of Greek in this country and in 
England: "Is there an authoritative Greek-English 
lexicon which defines the word ' to sprinkle ' or * to 
pour V " 

American answers were as follows : 

Prof. H. W. Humphreys, then of Yanderbilt, 
now of the University of Virginia, says : "There 
is no standard Greek-English lexicon that gives 
sprinkle or pour as one of the meanings of the 
Greek word haptizo." 



388 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

Prof. W. S. Tyler, Amherst College, says: - I 
do not know of any good lexicon which gives sprink- 
ling as a rendering of baptize.'' 

Prof. D'Ooge, University of Michigan, says : 
"There is no standard Greek-English lexicon that 
gives either sprinkle or pour as one of the meanings 
of the Greek verb baptizo." 

Prof. Flagg, Cornell University, says: " I know 
of no lexicons which give the meanings which vou 
speak of for baptizo, not even the lexicons of the 
Roman and Byzantian periods." 

The English were as follows : 

The Rev. H. Kynaston, D.D., Professor of Greek 
and Classical Literature, University of Durham, 
says: "The word baptizo means 'to dip, or sink' 
into water — not sprinkle, which is raino. I kuow of 
no lexicon which gives ' sprinkle ' for baptizo." 

Prof. G. C. Warr, M.A., Professor of Greek in 
Kings College, says : " Certainly the classical 
meaning of haptizo is to dip, not to sprinkle or to 
pour. " 

Prof. John Stracham, M.A., Owens College, says: 
"I never to my knowledge met with the word in 
the literal sense of ' sprinkle,' and I doubt if it has 
any such meaning." 

Prof. A. S. Wilkins, Litt. 1)., LL.D., Professor 
of Greek New Testament Criticism, Owens College, 
says : "I do not think that any lexicon of authority 
gives the literal meaning of 'to pour.' " 

Prof. G. E. Marmdin, University of London, 
says : "I do not know of any Greek-English lexicon 



What Baptists Have Done for the World. 389 

which gives the meaning ' to sprinkle ' or ' to pour ' 
— if any does so I should say it makes a mistake. " 

Prof. R. C. Jebb, University of Cambridge, says : 
4t Ido not know whether there is any 'authorita- 
tive Greek-English lexicon ' which makes the word 
mean ' sprinkle ' or ' pour. ' 1 can only say that 
such a meaning never belongs to the word in classi- 
cal Greek.'' 

It is then a most significant fact that the prevalent 
practices of sprinkling and pouring are not sustained 
by a single standard Greek-English lexicon. Bap- 
tists are laboring in a good cause when they urge 
upon all men to restore the primitive act of baptism. 

3. Baptists have done a great work for the world 
in emphasizing the personal element in religion. 
They have always insisted upon individualism. 
They declare that a man should possess personal 
faith and decide all questions of faith for himself. 
They offer the protest of reason against authority, of 
prose against poetry, of the Word of God against 
custom. 

A direct sequence of individualism in religion is a 
converted church membership. Baptists think that 
every man should give a personal account of himself 
to God. Hence they insist upon spirituality in the 
churches. This has ever been the faith of the Bap- 
tists. This was the contention of the Anabaptists. 
Jorg testifies that the Anabaptists of the sixteenth 
century desired "an entirely new church, a church 
of believers. v Hast also observes : ;i The doctrine 
of spiritual regeneration, the soul of Christianity, 



390 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

has perhaps never been taught with deeper feeling 
and adhered to with greater zeal than by the de- 
spised Anabaptists. Their aim was the highest pos- 
sible — a church of saints. Nowhere in church his- 
tory is found such a subjugation of all other motives 
to the religious, such an approach to the order and 
life of the church of the apostles." 

A declaration of the faith of the Anabaptists has 
reached us, and no Baptist would dissent from the 
following declarations taken from it : 

" 1. The Scriptures are the only authority in mat- 
ters of faith and practice. 

"2. That personal faith in Jesus Christ alone se- 
cures salvation; therefore infant baptism is to be re- 
jected. 

" 3. That a church is composed of believers who 
have been baptized on a personal confession of their 
faith in Jesus Christ. . 

' ' 4. That each church has the entire control of its 
own affairs without interference on the part of any 
external power. 

"5. That the outward life must be in accordance 
with such a confession of faith, and to this end it is 
essential that church discipline should be main- 
tained." 

Individualism has been one of the marked features 
of the Baptists of the United States. Joseph Cook, 
the great Boston lecturer, says: ;; -I remember 
where I am speaking; I know what prejudices I am 
crossing; but I know that in this assembly, as- 
suredly, nobody will have objection to my advocacy, 



What Baptists Have Done for the World. 391 

even at a little expense of consistency with my own 
supposed principles, of the necessity of spiritual 
church membership. If I say that a certain denom- 
ination, represented by that man who was driven 
from Massachusetts to Rhode Island, has, in spite of 
all that we hear in criticism about one of its beliefs, 
been of the foremost service in bringing into the 
world, among all Protestant denominations, an ade- 
quate idea of the importance of a spirital church 
membership. I know that no generous heart or 
searching intellect will object to this statement." 

The New York Tribune recently said: "The Bap- 
tists have solved the great pkoblem. They combine 
the most resolute conviction, the most stubborn be- 
lief in their own special doctrines with the most 
admirable tolerance of the faith of other Christians." 

This exaltation of individualism in religion cuts 
away every support for infant baptism. Baptists 
think that the Bible requires that every man shall 
give an account to God for himself. They do not 
think that an infant is capable of choosing for itself, 
and so they defer baptism, and all other religious 
ordinances, to a maturer age. 

Their interpretation of the Word of God, in this 
particular, is backed by the foremost scholars of the 
world. There is only space for a few Fedobaptist 
authorities, but their testimony is ample. 

Dr. T. O. Summers, Methodist, Professor in Van- 
derbilt University, says : " It is not said, indeed, in 
so many words in the New Testament, that the 
Apostles baptized young children." 



392 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

Dr. Wall, an Episcopalian, says: "Among all 
the persons that are recorded as baptized by the 
Apostles there is no express mention of infants." 

Dr. George Edward Steitz, Lutheran, says : 
"Among scientific exegetes it is regarded as an 
established conclusion that not a trace of infant bap- 
tism can be discovered in the New Testament." 

Dr. A. T. Bledsoe, Southern Methodist, says : 
" With all of our searching we have been unable to 
find in the New Testament a single express declara- 
tion, or word, in favor of infant baptism. We 
justify the rite, therefore, solely on the ground of 
logical inference, and not on any express word of 
Christ or his apostles." 

Here is a point worthy of the loftiest considera- 
tion. Baptists have brought the whole world to 
recognize the importance of a converted church 
membership. 

4. Baptists have done a great work in giving to 
the world soul liberty. This has been their peculiar 
honor. They have ever stood for the separation of 
church and State and for absolute liberty of con- 
science for all. In Germany the despised Anabap- 
tists plead this cause. Hans Denck says : "In 
matters of faith everything must be left free, willing 
and unfettered." Belthazar Hubmeyer bore testi- 
mony : ' ' Hence it follows that the inquisitors are 
the greatest heretics of all, since they, against the 
doctrine and example of Christ, condemn heretics to 
fire, and before the time of harvest root up the 
wheat with the tares. * * And now it is clear to 






What Baptists Have Done for the World. 393 

every one, even the blind, that a law to burn here- 
tics is an invention of the devil. Truth is immor- 
tal/' 

We can trace the Baptists all through the liberties 
of England. 

The Nonconformist and Independent, London, 
gives this summary of their work : "To the Bap- 
tists must be credited the proud distinction first of 
doctrinal relationship to the earliest Christians in 
Great Britain; and secondly, their priority in assert- 
ing the principle of liberty of conscience. Their 
essential doctrine was held firmly by the Christian 
communions which St. Augustine found in England 
when lie arrived on his missionary enterprise, and no 
efforts of his could convert the Baptists to the eccle- 
siastical polity of the church of Home. Coming to a 
more historical period, ' it is, ' says Mr. Skeaats, in 
his 'History of Free Churches,' ' the singular and 
distinguished honor of the Baptists to have repu- 
diated from their earliest history all coercive power 
over the conscience, and the actions of men with 
reference to religion. - They were the p> r °to- 

evangelists of the voluntary principle. * " From 
the remote period referred to above, the principles 
of the Baptists have more or less permeated and 
leavened* the religious life of England. The Lollards 
are said to have held their views. And Wickliffe is 
claimed as one of the early adherents of their theory 
of Christ's teaching. * * They have had to en- 
dure imprisonment, pain and death for their rejec- 
tion of the supremacy of the crown, and their asser- 



394 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

tion of a doctrine which cut at the very root of 
2>riestism.' > " 

Tlie part Baptists took in establishing the liberties 
of England lias never yet been fully acknowledged, 
but it will be done some time. Leonard Busher, in 
1614, presented to the King and Parliament of Eng- 
land a treatise entitled: ''Religious Peace, or a 
Plea for Liberty of Conscience,*' supposed to be the 
first regular discussion of the subject in the English 
language. When we take all of these things into, 
consideration we are not astonished at the statement 
of the distinguished John Locke when he said that 
the Baptists were " the first and only expounders of 
absolute liberty, — just and true liberty, equal and 
impartial.*' We may also understand the attitude of 
William Penn, the founder of the Quakers, when we 
remember that he came of Baptist parentage. 

In the United States the first to preach and prac- 
tice soul liberty was a Baptist, Roger Williams. He 
was banished from Massachusetts on account of this 
view, and set up in Rhode Island the first democ- 
racy in America. In this colony a man was allowed 
to maintain any religious dogma that he pleased, 
and all men were welcome. 

Judge Story, the most distinguished of American 
jurists, says : "In the code of laws established by 
them in Rhode Island we read for the first time 
since Christianity ascended the throne of the Caesars 
the declaration that the conscience should be free, 
and men should not be punished for worshipping 
God in the way they were persuaded he requires." 



What Baptists Have Done for the World. 395' 

We cannot stop to show that religious liberty, in 
almost every State, was won by Baptists, but atten- 
tion is called to a few general laws of the United 
States which the Baptists were influential in having 
passed. When the first Continental Congress met 
in 1774: the first petition presented was for religious 
liberty, and it was presented by a committee from 
Warren Baptist Association of Rhode Island. The 
Rev. Isaac Bachus was chairman. As a result we 
have in our Constitution : "No religious test shall 
ever be required as a qualification to any office or 
public trust under the United States." 

When the Constitution of the United States was 
adopted there was doubt whether it secured liberty 
of conscience for all. A general committee of the 
Baptists of Virginia met at Williams' meeting house, 
Goochland county, March 7, 1778. The first ques- 
tion discussed was: "Whether the new Federal 
Constitution, which had now lately made its appear- 
ance in public, made sufficient provision for the se- 
cure enjoyment of religious liberty; on which it was 
argued unanimously, that, in the opinion of the gen- 
eral committee, it did not." Upon consultation 
with Mr. Madison they presented a memorial to 
George Washington and secured the first amend- 
ment to the Constitution of the United States, which 
reads : "Congress shall make no law respecting an 
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free ex- 
ercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech 
or of the press, or the right x>£ the people peaceably 
to assemble and petition the Government for the re- 
dress of grievances." 



396 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

The answer of Mr. Washington was so favorable 
and complimentary that the reader will doubtless be 
glad to hear a few words from it. He says: "I 
have often expressed my sentiments that every man 
conducting himself as a good citizen, and being ac- 
countable alone to God for his religious opinions, 
ought to be protected in worshipping according to 
the dictates of his own conscience, while I recollect, 
with satisfaction, that the religious society of which 
you are members have been throughout America 
uniformly and almost unanimously the firm friends 
of civil liberty, and the preserving promoters of our 
glorious revolution, I cannot hesitate to believe that 
they will be faithful supporters of a free, yet effi- 
cient, general government. Under this pleasing- 
expectation, 1 rejoice to assure them that they may 
rely on my best wishes and endeavors to advance 
their prosperity." 

It is scarcely needful to say that such deeds should 
be recorded. 

5. It is claimed that Thomas Jefferson modeled 
the Constitution of the United States according to 
the Baptist plan of church government. He was in 
the habit of attending the meetings of a small Bap- 
tist church not far from his residence. It is said 
that the pastor, Rev. Andrew Tribble, asked Mr. 
Jefferson one day how he was pleased with their 
church government. Mr. Jefferson replied that 
"it had struck him with great force, and had inter- 
ested him much; that he considered it the only form 
of democracy that then existed in the world, and had 



What Baptists Have Done for the World. 397 

concluded that it would be the best form of govern- 
ment for the American colonies.'' This was several 
years before the Declaration of Independence. In 
the same line is a letter of Mr. Jefferson's which he 
wrote to the Baptist Church, Buck Mountain, Ya., 
in 1809. He said : u We have acted together from 
the origin to the end of the memorable revolution, 
and we have contributed each in the line allotted us 
our endeavors to render its issues a permanent bless- 
ing to our country." 

I recently marked this statement from Prof. 
Austin Phelps, of Andover Theological Seminary : 
'•Even Thomas Jefferson confessed that his first 
clear conception of a republic came from the polity 
of an obscure Baptist church in Virginia." My 
Portfolio, p. 125, 

6. A Baptist deacon divides with Robert Raikes 
the honor of originating the Sunday-school work. 
Indeed, William Fox was scarcely less distinguished 
in this work than Raikes himself. The Sunday- 
school Society of England, which is still a useful 
organization, was founded bv Fox. And when the 
Sunday-school as organized by Raikes on the plan of 
hired teachers was doomed to failure, it was a Bap- 
tist, Rev. William Birdie Gourney, who saved the 
work and organized Sunday-schools upon the present 
plan. Another Baptist, Mr. B. F. Jacobs, of Chi- 
cago, originated the present system of International 
Sunday-school Lessons. 

7. Baptists are maintaining in the world sound 
evangelical doctrines of faith. They believe in the 



398 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

fundamental doctrines of grace and preach them. In 
a generation which is honeycombed with error it is a 
good thing to have one denomination which holds to 
the old faith. In a recent letter to Dr. Strong, of 
Rochester, that stalwart Presbyterian, Dr. William 
G= T. Shedd, says : " Among the denominations we 
all look to the Baptists for steady and firm adher- 
ence to sound doctrine. You have never had any 
internal conflicts, and from year to year you present 
an undivided front in the defense of the Calvinistic 
faith. Having no judicatures, and regarding the 
local church as a unit, it is remarkable that you 
maintain such a unity and solidarity of belief. " 

The following extract was recently taken from the 
Nashville Christian Advocate, the leading Methodist 
paper in the South : u The Baptist church is very 
strong in the Southern States. In many communi- 
ties it takes the lead. During the past twenty-five 
years it has made a wonderful advance in the edu- 
cation of its ministers and in other important partic- 
ulars. We are not jealous of our ' submersionist ' 
brethren, though we take exception to some of their 
exclusive ways. They preach a sound, honest gos- 
pel, and go after the masses of the people. The 
only thing about which we are careful is that they 
may not take our crown. Let the Methodists bestir 
themselves." 

In a letter to myself Dr. Theodore Cuyler, the 
great New York Presbyterian, said : " Allow me to 
express my devout gratitude for all that the great 
Baptist Church is doing for the main tenancy of 



What Baptists Have Bone for the World, 399 

sound evangelical doctrine and for the spread of the 
Kingdom of Christ." 

8. Baptists are second to none in educational fa- 
cilities. There are no people in this country who 
Iiave more fully met the educational needs than have 
the Baptists. Our ministers in the point of educa- 
tion stand with the first in the land; our schools are 
second to none. They have always been the advo- 
cates of higher education. The oldest and largest 
university of the United States is Harvard. The 
iirst money it ever received as an endowment was 
from a Baptist, and the Hollis family — Baptists — 
were its most munificent benefactors. 

It was named after a Baptist preacher. Its first 
two presidents — Henry Dunster and Charles Chausey 
— were deeply impregnated with Baptist principles. 
President Quincy said of them : -'For learning and 
talents they have been surpassed by no one of their 
successors. 

Of Mr. Thomas Hollis, Mr. Quincy, the historian 
of Harvard, says : - 1 Attached to his Baptist faith, 
with a firmness which admitted neither concealment 
nor compromise, he (Mr. Hollis) selected for the 
object of his extraordinary bounties an institution in 
which he knew those of his faith were regarded with 
dread by some, and with detestation by others, and 
where he had reason to think, as he averred, that 
the very portrait of a Baptist, though of a benefac- 
tor, would be the subject of insult. Yet he suffered 
neither his affection nor his charity to fail, being 
actuated by the elevated motive, that it was more 



400 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

catholic and free in its religious sentiment than any 
other institution existing at that period. In estab- 
lishing conditions for enjoying the benefit of his 
bounty, he claimed no concession, he made no ex- 
clusion. He required only that the .Baptist faith 
should not be deemed as a disqualification for par- 
taking of his bounty, or for being a candidate for his 
professorship. In order to place an insurmountable 
barrier against the imposition of artificial creeds, 
woven in words of men's devising, he made the sim- 
ple provision that the only article of faith, to which 
the Professor of the Divinity foundation, which he 
established, should be required to subscribe, was 
his belief that the Scriptures of the Old and New 
Testaments are the only perfect rule of faith and 
practice.'' A professorship on the Mollis founda- 
tion is still retained in Harvard, and at the present 
is filled by Prof. D. G. Lyon. 

The Baptists assisted Franklin in laying the foun- 
dation of the University of Pennsylvania, and have 
been among the first in aiding all State institutions. 
As early as 1764, when numbering in all America 
only sixty churches and about 5,000 members, the 
Baptists founded their first college, Brown Univer- 
sity, in Rhode Island. Now they have twenty- 
eight chartered colleges, over 200 academies and 
seminaries and nine theological semiiiaries. They 
have in the United States more money invested in 
colleges and endowments than any other denomina- 
tion of Christians. They have given in the last ten 
years for education more money than all other de- 
nominations combined. 



What Baptists Have Done for the World. 401 

It may also be noticed that what has grown into 
the public school system was founded by Dr. John 
Clarke, a Baptist, of Rhode Island. 

9. In the domain of letters the Baptists hold a 
very honorable position. A book that has attained 
a circulation next to the Bible was written by a Bap- 
tist — John Bunyan — and it has been translated into 
almost every language of earth. John Milton, the 
author of Paradise Lost, held many Baptist princi- 
ples. Macaulay calls these the two original minds 
of the century. Gill has not been surpassed as a 
commentator; and the critical Baptist scholar, Tre- 
gelles, must not be forgotten. John Howard, the 
great philanthropist, was a Baptist. Among the 
great preachers of the world one can mention Fuller. 
Robert Hall, Haldane, Spurgeon, Broadus and others. 

The Baptists have taught us to sing : - ; Blest be 
the tie that binds," ;; Did Christ o'er sinners weep," 
;; Majestic sweetness sits enthroned upon the Sa- 
viour's brow, ? ' " How firm a foundation, ye saints of 
the Lord," "All hail the power of Jesus' name," 
'•Saviour, thy dying love," and -My country, 'tis 
of thee. " These hymns which they have written, 
with others of faith and hope and love, give them a 
right to exist. 

I can therefore use the very graceful compliment 
of Dr. Chalmers, and it applies to the Baptists of 
America as well as to those of England. He says : 
11 Let it never be forgotten of the Particular Bap- 
tists of England, that they form the denomination of 
Fuller and Carey and Ryland and Hall and Foster;. 

26 



402 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

that they have organized among the greatest of all 
missionary enterprises; that they have enriched the 
Christian literature of our country with authorship 
of the most exalted piety, as well as with the first 
talent, and the first eloquence; that they have waged 
a very noble and successful war with the hydra of 
Antinomianism; that perhaps there is not a more in- 
tellectual community of ministers in our islands, or 
who have put forth to their number a greater amount 
of mental power and mental activity in the defense 
and illustration of our common faith; and, what is 
better than all of the triumphs of genius or under- 
standing, who by their zeal and fidelity and pastoral 
labor among congregations which they have reared, 
have done more to swell the list of genuine disciple- 
ship in the walks of private society— and thus to 
both uphold and extend the living Christianity of 
our nations." — (Com. Romans, Lee. 14, p. 76.) 

The Baptists have more newspapers in the United 
States than any other denomination of Christians. 
The figures are, Baptists, 181; Methodists, 173; 
Roman Catholic, 134; Episcopalians, 76; Presbyte- 
rians, 73; Lutherans, 59; Congregationalists, 33. 

10. The Baptists were the first to inaugurate the 
colportage work. This honor belongs to the Amer- 
ican Baptist Publication Society. Dr. Schaff, shortly 
before his death, gave the Society full credit for this 
great work. When we come to consider the mighty 
power of the printed page, and how its use can be 
facilitated by colporters, we can see some of the far 
reaching results of this work. 



What Baptists Have Done for the World. 403 

11. Baptists have been the pioneers, in modern 
times, of foreign missions. In 1792, under Carey, 
the Baptists founded the first missionary society to 
the heathen. When Carey first made the proposi- 
tion to send the gospel to India, Dr. Ryland was 
astounded at the audacity of Carey. But the Bap- 
tist cobbler became the forerunner of the mighty 
missionary work of to-day. It came to pass that the 
first churches founded in India, Burmah and China 
were Baptist churches. 

We thank God for a history so full of thrilling 
deeds. But it is not for Baptists to turn their eyes 
to the past. They are to take inspiration from the 
things already accomplished, and onward press their 
way. Mr. Froude said: "The Baptists were the 
most thorough going of all the Protestant sects." 
The great Neander remarked that it was the 
"one denomination that had a future." Shall that 
future be filled with overflowing blessings? If we 
rely on the past, we shall and ought to die ; if we 
seize the opportunities which God has thrown in our 
pathway, our history will grow brighter till the 
blessed day. May God fill the Baptists with zeal 
for his glory. 



CHAPTER XVI. 
W. P. HARVEY, D.D. 

Win. P. Harvey was born March 15, 1843, in the 
village of Kappa, County Gal way, Ireland. In 
1851 he came with his parents to America. 

He was reared in the Roman Catholic faith. In 
his seventeenth year he became acquainted with the 
Rev. George Hunt, and by him was led to Christ 
and baptized into the fellowship of the Baptist 
Church at Maysville, Ky. 

The subject of this sketch, besides attending the 
public schools in Mason county, Ky., spent two 
years at Maysville Seminary, three years at George- 
town College and two years at Kentucky University, 
where he graduated in 1865. 

He was licensed to preach by the church at Mays- 
ville in 1861, and was ordained to the full work of 
the ministry by the church at Harrodsburg in 1872. 
For ten years he was pastor, and the Lord greatly 
blessed his labors. For over three years he was 
Secretary of the Sunday-school and Colportage 
Board of the General Association of Kentucky Bap- 
tists. 

He was for one year Superintendent of Missions 
in the Eastern District of Kentucky. For one year 
also he was vice president of Georgetown College. 

In every position held by him he was honored 
with a successful administration. 

(404) 




W. P. HARVEY, D.D. 



W. P. Harvey, D.D. 405 

In 18ST. Dr. Harvey, associated with Dr. T. T. 
Eaton and Mr. J. B. McFerran, bought the Western 
Recorder. Under their leadership the paper has be- 
come a great power in the denomination, and refers 
with satisfaction to its record of fidelity and loyalty 
to Baptist principles. 

Afterward he was prominent in the organization 
of the Baptist Book Concern, raising a paid-up cap- 
ital of $100,000, of which he has been President 
and Treasurer since the organization. 

Dr. Harvey is one of the best-known men, not 
only in Kentucky, but all over the South, and 
everywhere he enjoys the respect and confidence of 
the brotherhood. Mississippi College honored him 
with the title of D.D. We publish at the close of 
this sketch his able discussion of i; Baptists in His- 
tory r 



Text: Psalms 48:12 and 13 verses — "Walk about Zion. 
and go round about her : tell the towers thereof. Mark ye 
well her bulwarks, consider her palaces ; that ye may tell 
it to the generation following." 

SUBJECT— BAPTISTS IN HISTORY. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

Reminiscence excites gratitude, inspires hope and 
stimulates to noblest achievements. With rever- 
ence and joy we recount the deeds of heroes, who 
neither courted the favor of the world nor feared its 
frown; who fought not for an earthly, but for a 
heavenly crown; whose brave protests rang out with 
no uncertain sound through the ages against the 
encroachments of civil and ecclesiastical tyranny. 
When the bloody deeds of warriors are forgotten 
and their mighty empires have perished, and the 
dust of oblivion shall cover all their glory, then will 
the defenders of the faith, once delivered to the 
saints, the apostles of civil and religious liberty, 
shine brighter than the stars of the firmament. 
That some champions of Baptist perpetuity have 
displayed more zeal than knowledge we admit, that 
others in their ambition to appear " broad and lib- 
eral " have made concessions at the expense of 
truth, cannot be denied. Because some have 
claimed too much is no reason why others should 
claim too little. Far be a spirit of vain boasting 
from us, and God forbid that we should be unmindful 

(406) 



Baptists in History^ 407 

or "underestimate the services of others in the great 
work of human redemption. 

I. When Christ was on earth he promised to 
build his church. We mean by church a congrega- 
tion of baptized believers. Matthew 16:18 : " Oru 
this rock I will build my church." "On this rock"' 
interpreted by Romanists generally to mean Peter,, 
by Protestants usually Peter's confession, or Christ. 
Whatever it may or may not mean, beyond doubt 
it does mean the foundation on which he said he- 
would build his church. 

II. Theologians differ about the meaning of 
the word church. Romanists claim it means a 
hierarchy, while Protestants and some Baptists say 
it means " An invisible and universal spiritual as- 
sembly." Baptists generally believe it means a 
local and visible congregation. As far-fetched as 
the two former views may appear, they are no more 
so than some other positions assumed by many good 
men, viz. : That the New Testament teaches infant 
baptism, and that immersion is not essential to 
Christian baptism, and that " something else will do 
as well. ,, The Master did keep his promise and 
he did build his church; e. g. , speaking of offenses 
involving discipline, in Matthew 18:17 he said : 
"Tell it to the church." How could this be done 
if there was no local church ? Whatever kind of 
a church he built, whether it was local and visible, 
or invisible, universal and spiritual, it was the one, 
and the only one, he built, and it is the one, and the 
only one, that he calls his own — "my churchj' ; 



408 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

If the church built by Christ was not local and 
visible, there is no divine authority for such 
churches. If the church built by Christ was not 
local and visible, the Apostles and their followers 
misunderstood him, because they continued to build 
local and visible churches after his model. We 
are told that the invisible and universal church is 
composed of the elect of all ages, and that outside 
of it there is no salvation. If this was the kind of 
church built by Christ, will some advocate of the 
invisible church theory tell us what became of the 
elect from Adam to Christ ? Were all lost ? If the 
church built by Christ was invisible, the world had 
no such church for the first four thousand years. 
"I will build my church." Church, in Matthew 
16:18, means local and visible. Because it is 
not reasonable to believe that Jesus used the word 
in an enigmatical or ambiguous sense. The word 
church, in Matthew 16:18, has the same mean- 
ing that it has in Matthew 18:17, and no one lias 
ever questioned that the latter refers to a local and 
visible assembly. Dean Alford so declares. Stier 
says, referring to the word in both passages, "In 
the second, the expression obtains a more special 
significance, yet it evidently points back to the first, 
so that the fundamental idea can only be the same." 
Zcmge says, Matthew 16:18 : " The word church al- 
ludes to the church as the organized and visible 
form." Expositor's Bible: Matthew 16:18: "It 
means an assembly called out." "Suggests the 
idea of separation so appropriate to the circum- 



Baptists in History. 409 

stances of the little band of outcasts." Pulpit Com- 
mentary: "The word translated church, 'ecclesia,' 
Matthew 16:18, is found the first time in the New 
Testament ; it is derived from a verb meaning ' to 
call out,' and in classic Greek denotes the regular 
legislative assembly of a people. Ecclesia has been 
that which designates the Christian society, and has 
been in all ages and countries. " Liddell and Scott, 
the standard Greek lexicon with all scholars and in 
all colleges and universities, defines ecclesia, "An 
assembly of people called together," " an assembly 
called out." The ecclesia was common among the 
Greeks. According to Trench ecclesia was a lawful 
assembly of a free Greek city of those who were 
worthy and well qualified as citizens for the transac- 
tion of public affairs. Robinson -s Greek lexicon : 
"The word ecclesia was familiar to the Jews as 
meaning a congregation, an assembly.'' Thayer, in 
his lexicon of New Testament Greek, "collates 
critically the usage of the word from Thucydides to 
the end of the New Testament period, and finds no 
support for the invisible theory. Take the entire 
range of Greek literature in all its dialects, secular 
and sacred, and there is not one passage in which 
ecclesia means an invisible and universal spiritual 
assembly." 

Septuagint: "The word ecclesia is found in the 
Greek translation of the New Testament seventy- 
four times, and is always used in the translation of 
the Hebrew word 'kahal,'to call together. No 
other Hebrew word is so translated. Kahal is found 



410 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

in Hebrew Scriptures one hundred and twenty-four 
times, and translated seventy-four times ecclesia, 
forty-seven times synagogue, twice Plethos, and 
once Sanhedrim.'" 

Vitringa says : "Synagogue always means an 
assembly gathered together, but not necessarily 
joined by any bond of union. Ecclesia, kahal, al- 
ways denotes some multitude which constitutes a 
people bound among themselves by law and obliga- 
tion. " 

In the Greek New Testament the word ecclesia 
occurs one hundred and fifteen times. In at least 
ninety-seven of these cases it is conceded that it 
means a local assembly; e. g., "Tell it to the 
church," "If he neglect to hear the church/' "The 
church which was at Jerusalem, "" Had gathered 
the church together, " " Confirming the churches, " 
" Unto the church of God at Corinth." By this 
it is evident that, according to New Testament usage, 
the word ecclesia means a local assembly. ' 'The called 
out " Christians are represented as called out of the 
world. Romans 8:28 : " And we know that all things 
work together for good to them that love God, to them 
who are the called according to his purpose." 
Again, 30th verse: "And whom he did predesti- 
nate, them he also called: and whom he called, them 
he also glorified." In an article recently published, 
J. J. Taylor, D.D., of Norfolk, Va., gives an ac- 
count of his correspondence with the Greek Pro- 
fessors of all the leading colleges and universities in 
regard to the meaning of ekMesia, and without an 



Baptists in History. 411 

exception the distinguished specialists gave their 
testimony against the invisible church theory. Dr. 
Taylor also says : 

"In the New Testament Jesus uses the word ekklesia 
twenty-two times; in twenty-one of these he clearly uses it 
in reference to the local, visible, corporeal assembly, and 
only a manifest violation of all linguistic usage could force a. 
different meaning in the remaining case." 

Rev. Dr. Henry M. Dexter, Congregationalist, 
says: ;t The weight of New Testament authority 
seems to decide that the ordinary and natural mean- 
ing of ecclesia is that of a local body of believers." 

" Now it is the plainest principle of sound interpretation 
that where the overwhelming usage in a book is plainly in 
favor of a certain meaning to a word, that meaning must be 
given to it in every passage where it will make sense. We 
are at liberty to bring in another meaning only when the 
ordinary meaning would destroy the sense. Many claim 
that there is no passage in the New Testament where mak- 
ing ekklesia mean local assembly would mar or destroy the 
same. If this be true, then the word cannot rightly be in- 
terpreted anywhere as meaning anything else than the local 
assembly. 

''Common sense declares that a thing cannot be and not 
be at the same time. Affirmative and negative statements 
each having the same scope, subject and term, cannot be 
true. An invisible company of the elect on earth, who are 
physical beings, cannot be used as material to build an in- 
visible house. An invisible house cannot be built of physi- 
cal material." 

III. What Baptists generally believe in regard to 
their origin. 

History points to the origin of the various de- 
nominations, and in regard to their respective found- 



412 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

ers there is no controversy, but strange there is no 
recognized historic account of the origin of Baptists 
this side of the apostolic age. 

The people now called Baptists have been known 
by different names in different ages and countries. 
We trace them not by any particular name, but by 
their fundamental principles. In more modern 
times they have been called " The baptized jjeoj)le^ 
"The dippers, v and "Anabaptists." The latter, 
Dr. Armitage says, "because they baptized those 
who came to them from other denominations.' 1 
They did their own baptizing, and recognized no 
other. I quote from Dr. Armitage 's History of the 
Baptists, page 329 : " By custom their most friendly 
historians call them Anabaptists, yet many of their 
opponents speak of them as Baptists." It is no sur- 
prise to us that there are some modern historians 
among the destructive critics who question our apos- 
tolic origin. There are Protestant writers who ex- 
onerate the papacy from responsibility for the mas- 
sacre of St. Bartholomew. There are so-called 
scientists who dispute the law of gravitation. The 
vain ambition to abandon "beaten tracks 1 ' and to 
pose as "original and advanced thinkers," does 
make some men reckless when dealing with what 
has been considered as "fixed.' 1 The more sacred, 
the more tempting to the self-complacent and de- 
structive critic. According to Dr. Armitage and 
other writers, Anabaptists were called Baptists, and 
Baptists were called Anabaptists. That Anabap- 
tists and Baptists are frequently spoken of as the 



Baptists in History. 41$ 

same people is abundantly supported by the greatest 
authors who have written on the subject. Most of 
their articles of faith that have come down to us are 
essentially Baptistic. When destructive critics 
prove that Napoleon Bonaparte was a myth, and 
that the Bible is not inspired; when Donnelly proves 
that Lord Bacon wrote Shakespeare, then some one 
may prove that there were no Baptists among the 
Anabaptists. My contention is that there were 
Anabaptists who held essentially to what are ac- 
cepted generally as Baptist doctrines now. That 
those called Anabaptists differed among themselves, 
I do not question. The same is true of their de- 
scendants, the Baptists, to-day; e. g., compare the 
Philadelphia and New Hampshire Confessions of 
Faith. Have we not missionary and anti-missionary 
Baptists i Calvinist and Arminian 2 Those who 
believe in final preservation, and those who do not ? 
Those who receive alien baptism, and those who re- 
ject it ? Those who believe in open communion, 
and those who do not \ Those who believe that 
baptism is essential to salvation, and those who be- 
lieve that salvation is essential to baptism ? Those 
who believe in the plenary inspiration, and those 
who do not ? Those who believe that immersion is 
essential to baptism and church privileges^ and those 
who do not, as illustrated in open communion Baptist 
churches 1 Those who believe the church "built" 
by Christ is local and visible, and those who believe 
it is universal and invisible f Those who argue that 
because Anabaptists differed among themselves, and 



414 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

that because some may have apostatized, therefore 
there were no Baptists among them, can, by the 
same mode of reasoning, prove that there are no 
Baptists now. Happily, it is not for me to decide 
how much or how little any one had to believe in 
order to be stigmatized Anabaptist, or how much or 
little any one must believe to be entitled to the hon- 
ored name of Baptist. The English Baptists deny 
that John Smith or Edward Barber was their 
founder. The Welch Baptists claim that their an- 
cestors were evangelized in the first century. While 
the Dutch Baptists claim apostolic origin, German 
Baptists maintain that they antedate the Reforma- 
tion. Mosheim says : "Before the rise of Luther 
and Calvin, there lay secreted in almost all the conn- 
tries of Europe persons who adhered tenaciously to 
the principles of the modern Dutch Baptists. " Ved- 
dei^s Short History of the Baptists, page 49 : "One 
cannot affirm that there was not a continuity in the 
outward and visible life of the churches founded by 
the apostles down to the time of the Reformation." 
Page 50 : "A succession of the true faith may in- 
deed be traced in faint lines at times, but never en- 
tirely disappearing." On the title page of Dr. 
Armitage's History of the Baptists we find the fol- 
lowing paragraph : "A history of the Baptists, 
traced by their vital principles from the time of our 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to the year 1886." 
Rev. George B. Taylor says: "Baptist practices 
and Baptist principles have existed in all ages from 
the Reformation to apostolic times." Fengilly says : 



Baptists in History. 415 

i 'Our principles are as old as Christianity; we ac- 
knowledge no founder but Christ." Rev. Dr. Win. 
Williams, once Prof essor of Church History Southern 
Baptist Theological Seminary, says: " In my opin- 
ion Baptist churches are of divine origin, and origi- 
nated in the first century under the preaching and 
founding of the apostles of our Lord." Rev. Geo. 
P. Gould, of England, is now editing a series of 
Baptist manuals. In 1895 he published one of 
Hansford Knollys, by James Curloss, M.A. , D.D., 
ex-President of Bristol College. After stating that 
Hansford Knollys became Secretary, probably in 
1631, he declares : i; Had Baptists thought anything 
depended on it, they might have traced their pedi- 
gree back to New Testament times. The channel of 
succession was certainly purer, if humbler, than 
through the apostate church of Rome. But they 
were content to rest on Scripture alone, and as they 
found only believers' baptism there, they adhered 
to that." Baptist History Vindicated, pages 27 
and 28. 

IV. Concessions of Great Church Historians and 
Scholars to Baptist Antiquity. Sir Isaac Newton, 
the celebrated philosopher, declared : "The Baptists 
are the only body of Christians that has not symbol- 
ized with the Church of Rome." 

"The true origin of that sect which acquired the denomi- 
nation Anabaptists by their administering 1 anew the rite of 
baptism to those who came over to their communion, and 
derived that of Mennonites from the famous man to whom 
they owe the greatest part of their present felicity, IS HID 
IN THE DEPTHS OF ANTIQUITY, and is, of consequence, 



416 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

extremely difficult to be ascertained." Church History, 
page 490. 

Mosheim virtually admits that their origin cannot 
be found on this side of the New Testament age ! 
Hear Zwingle, the great Swiss reformer : 

''The institution of Anabaptism is NO novelty, but for 
1300 years has caused great disturbance in the church, and 
has acquired such a strength that the attempt in this age to 
contend with it appeared futile for a time." 

Take 1300 from 1530, the date at which Zwingle 
wrote, and we have A. D. 230, a date reaching 
nearly the apostolic age, according to this great re- 
former. 

Ree, in his " Reply to Wall,*' page 20, says : 

,l The Anabaptists are a pernicious sect, of which kind the 
Waldensian brethren seem to have been. Nor is this heresy 
a modern thing, for it existed in the time of Austin." 

The Roman Catholic Cardinal Hosius, President 
of the Council of Trent, in 1650, was forced as an 
impartial historian to declare : 

•'If the truths of religion were to be judged of by the read- 
iness and cheerfulness which a man of any sect shows in suf- 
fering, then the opinion and persuasion of no sect can be 
truer and surer than that of the Anabaptists (Baptists), since 
there have been none for the PAST TWELVE HUNDRED 
YEARS that have been more generally punished, or that 
have more cheerfully and steadfastly undergone, and even 
offered themselves to the most cruel sorts of punishment, 
than these people. " 

In 1819 the King of Holland appointed Dr. Ypeij, 
Professor of Theology in the University of Gronin- 



Baptists in History. 417 

gen, and Rev. I. J. Dermout, Chaplain to the King, 
both learned men and members of the Dutch Re- 
formed church, to prepare a history of their church. 
In the authentic volume which they prepared and 
published at Breda, 1823, they devote one chapter 
to the Baptists, in which they make the following 
statement : 

"We have now seen that the Baptists, who were for- 
merly called Anabaptists, and in later times Mennonites, 
were the original Waldenses, and who long in the history of 
the church received the honor of that origin. 

"On this account the Baptists may be considered as the 
only Christian community which has stood since the apos- 
tles, and as a Christian society has preserved pure the doc- 
trine of the gospel through all ages." 

"Let it be remembered," says Dr. Wheaton Smith, "that 
these learned men were not Baptists, that they proclaimed 
the result of their diligent research in the ear of a King 5 
who listened unwillingly to their conclusions. 

"Let it be remembered that, as a result of their investiga- 
tion, the Government of Holland offered to the Baptist 
churches in the kingdom the support of the State, and, true, 
to their principles, they declined it." 

The testimony of Drs. Ypeij and Dermout in 
favor of Baptist perpetuity has been relied on as 
authentic by Baptists all over the world for over 
seventy-five years. But when worldly-wise men 
claimed to discover that Moses was not the author 
of the Pentateuch, and that Roger Williams was a 
mythological chief of the Narragansett Indian tribe, 
then came an assault on this superb evidence of 
Baptist antiquity. The following correspondence 
explains itself. Rev. George Manly, D.D., is an 

27 



418 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

A. B. graduate of Georgetown College, a graduate 
of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and 
also a graduate of the University of Berlin. He is 
now President of a college of languages in Berlin. 
There is no man more competent to investigate the 
subject under consideration. 

Louisville, Ky., Dec. 6, 1895. 
Prof. George Manly, Berlin, Germany, Potsdamer Strasse 4: 

My Dear Brother — I write to get your opinion of the au- 
thenticity of a quotation often found in Baptist history. "In 
1819 the King- of Holland appointed Dr. A. Ypeij, Professor 
of Theology in the University of Groningen, and Rev. I. J. 
Dermout, Chaplain to the King, both learned men and mem- 
bers of the Dutch Reformed church. In the authentic vol- 
ume which they prepared and published at Breda, 1819, they 
devote one chapter to the Baptists, in which they make the 
following statement : ' We have now seen that the Baptists, 
who were formerly called Anabaptists, and in later times 
Mennonites, were the original Waldenses, and who long in 
the history of the church received the honor of that origin. 
On this account the Baptists may be considered as the only 
Christian community which has stood since the apostles, 
and as a Christian society has preserved pure the doctrines 
of the gospel through all ages.' This has been quoted by 
the great Dr. J. Newton Brown; and Prof. Toby, formerly of 
Bethel College, wrote an article quoting it in the old Bap- 
tist Review. Recently articles have appeared in some of our 
denominational papers denying that it had any reference to 
Baptists. I am now revising my tract, Baptists in History, 
and will publish your reply in connection with my letter to 
you. 

Please favor me with your information at your earliest 
convenience. I wish you the largest success in your great 
work, and hope to see you again in the nicest city of the 
nicest State of the best country in the world. 

Most cordially and fraternally yours, 

W. P. Harvey. 



Baptists in History. 419 

Berlin, den 14, Jan. 1896. 
Bev. W. P. Harvey, D.D., Louisville, Ky.: 

My Dear Sir — In reply to your favor of December 6, 1895, 
in which you inquire as to the authenticity of a passage 
quoted in Baptist histories, and now called in question by a 
prominent writer, I take pleasure in stating that the passage 
is genuine and the translation gives the thought correctly. It is 
found- on page 148, vol. 1, of the work entitled: "Geschied- 
enis der Nederlandsche Hervormde Kerk: door A. Ypeij, 
Doctor en Hoogleeraar der godgeleersheid te Groningen, en 
I. J. Dermout, Deereberis van de Algemeene Synode der 
Nederlandsche Hervormde Kerk en Rredikant te's Graven- 
page. Te Breda, MDGCCXIX." 

("History of the Dutch Reformed Church, by A. Ypeij, 
Doctor and Professor of Theology at Groningen, and I. J. 
Dermout, Secretary of the General Synod of the Dutch Re- 
formed Church, and Preacher at The Hague, at Breda, 
1819.") 

The passage is the following : 

" Gezien hebben wij nee, datdedoopsgezinden, dis, in vooe- 
gere tijden, Wederdoopers, en in labere tijden Monnonieten 
genoemed werden, oorsponkelijk Waldenzen waren, die, in 
der geschiedenis der kerk, sedert lang altijd zulk eene wel- 
verdiende hulde hebben ontvangen Derhalve mogen de 
doopsgezinden beschouwd worden als van ouds her de 
eenige godsdienstgemeenschap, de bestaan heeft van de 
tijden der Apostelen af, als eene christelijke maatschappij, 
welke de evanvelische godsdienstleer rein bewaard heeft, 
door alle eenwen heen." ("We have now shown that the 
baptizers [the baptizing people], who were called Anabap- 
tists in the earlier times andMennonitesin later times, were 
originally Waldenses, who, in the history of the church, for 
a long time have always received such a well-deserved 
honor. On this account the baptizers may be considered as 
from olden times the only religious community, which has 
stood from the times of the Apostles as a Christian society, 
which has preserved the evangelical religious doctrine pure 
through all the centuries to the present.") 

I here give a very literal translation, made from the origi- 
nal, that agrees in all substantial points with the translation 



420 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

which you have found elsewhere. I give '" religious com- 
munity " instead of ''Christian community," but of course 
the author had in mind only Christian communities, and the 
thought remains unaffected. "Evangelical religious doc- 
trine" can only be "doctrine of the gospel.'' The original 
work is in the Royal Library at Berlin. 

Yours fraternally. 

G. W. Manly. 

The above letter I showed to Mr. Theodore 
Harris, President of the Louisville National Bank- 
ing Company, and one of our leading and most in- 
telligent Baptist laymen. He forwarded a copy to 
Miss Zuda Harris, his daughter, who has spent 
many years in Berlin. She is a celebrated pianist, 
and also highly educated, and has a certificate to 
teach German literature in any part of the empire. 
She took up the subject and made a thorough inves- 
tigation, translating the Dutch into German and the 
German into English, and fully indorsed the testi- 
mony of Dr. Manly. 

I now quote from Mr. Alexander Campbell, in his 
debate with McCalla, page 378 : 

"From the apostolic age to the present time the senti- 
ments of Baptists and their practice of baptism have had a 
continued chain of advocates, and public monuments of their 
existence in every center can be produced." 

V. .Baptist Churches Are Identical With New 
Testament Churches. 1. New Testament churches 
were local and visible assemblies of baptized be- 
lievers. In this respect are not Baptist churches 
like them? 2. Apostolic churches were not called 
the church of the particular country in which they 



Baptists in History. 421 

were located; e. g. , the Church of England, the 
Episcopal, Presbyterian, Baptist or Methodist Church 
of Kentucky or of America. We do not read in 
the Xew Testament the Church of Judea, but "the 
■churches of Judea." We do not read the Church of 
Macedonia, but "the churches of Macedonia.*' We 
•do not read the Church of Galatia, but "the 
churches of Galatia." We do not read of the 
-Church of Asia, but "the seven churches of Asia." 
In this respect are not Baptist churches like them 2 
I am reminded that Acts 9:31 teaches differently. 
••Then had the churches rest throughout all Judea, 
G-alatia and Samaria, and were edified.** While 
the plural, churches, is the reading in some good 
manuscripts, we admit that the oldest and most val- 
uable has the singular. " church" so has the revised 
version. According to Dr. John A. Broadus, who 
is quoted by Dr. George Clark in his commentary 
on this verse, "the word church in the text is lim- 
ited iii this passage to the original church at Jeru- 
salem. The members had been scattered through- 
out Judea, Samaria and Galilee, and held meetings 
where they were, but still belonged to the original 
organization at Jerusalem. 3. Conditions of mem- 
bership in New Testament churches: a. " Repentance 
toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ." b. 
A public and credible profession. c. Scriptural 
baptism. This is according to the practice of Bap- 
tist churches. 4. The design of baptism, a. Not 
in order to the remission of sins, but because of the 
remission of sins. Baptism is not essential to sal- 



422 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

vation, but salvation is essential to baptism. Are 
not Baptist churches like them ? 5. Scriptural bap- 
tism was prerequisite to membership in New Testa- 
ment churches. Where there is no scriptural bap- 
tism, can there be a scriptural church ? Baptist 
churches are like them. 6. The validity of baptism 
as practiced by apostolic churches was not ques- 
tioned. This is true of baptism practiced by Bap- 
tist churches. Baptism administered by Baptists 
stands not only unchallenged, but indorsed, directly 
or indirectly, by all denominations. 7. There were 
two, and only two, ordinances in apostolic churches, 
viz.: Baptism and the Lord's Supper. The officers 
consisted of pastors, bishops, or elders, and dea- 
cons. The same is true of Baptist churches. 8. 
New Testament church government, democratic or 
congregational. Each congregation as separate and 
independent of every other as if it w T ere the only 
one on earth. This is all true of Baptist churches. 
Baptist churches are as much like apostolic churches 
as they were like each other, and as much as Baptist 
churches are like each other now. We affirm that 
between apostolic and Baptist churches there is no 
essential difference. If Baptist churches are not a 
continuity of apostolic churches, will some one tell 
us where and when the last of the apostolic churches 
died, and when and where Baptist churches began ? 
]]7ie/'e is the harm in the continued existence of 
Baptists through all ages since the apostles ? Why 
should any Baptist oppose such a belief 2 We do 
not understand how a man who does not want the 



Baptists in Histoid 423 

Baptists to have existed continuously can really de- 
sire them to exist at all. 

VI. We predicate the continuity of apostolic 
churches and churches like them on the promise 
of Christ: "The gates of hell shall not prevail 
against it." In Matthew 18:17, Jesus, in speak- 
ing of offenses between brethren, says : " Tell it 
to the church." If there has been a day since 
he uttered these words when there was no church 
to tell anything to, for that day this passage was 
of no effect, and his word failed. We do not 
regard it necessry to prove an unbroken visible 
and historical continuity of New Testament 
churches from Christ and his apostles until now. 
We hold that any church that bears the genuine 
apostolic stamp, if constituted yesterday by those 
duly authorized, is in direct historical descent from 
New Testament churches. The question is not, Can 
we trace the history of his church and those fashioned 
after its divine model ? but the question is, Has 
Christ kept his promise \ 

VII. We predicate perpetuity of New Testament 
churches, and the identity of Baptist churches with 
them, upon Christ's prophecy that has been ful- 
filled in our history, "If they have persecuted 
me, they will persecute you." The forerunner, 
John the Baptist, was beheaded. The Master was 
crucified. The apostles suffered martyrdom. Saul 
of Tarsus made havoc of the church at Jerusalem. 
Over three hundred years of Jewish and Pagan per- 
secutions followed. In the early part of the fourth 



424 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

century, Coiistantine, contending for no less a prize 
than the throne of the Caesars, chose the Christians 
for allies, and by their valor he triumphed. To the 
conquerors the spoils were awarded. Christians 
suddenly emancipated from legal disabilities and 
social ostracism, and elevated to positions of honor 
and trust, were tempted beyond their power to resist, 
and the many for the sake of peace suffered them- 
selves to be betrayed into a compromise with Juda- 
ism and Paganism, which in the course of time 
crystallized into Romanism. This event marked 
the first great halt in the evangelization of the 
world. The consummation of the unhallowed union 
of church and State was followed by an intellectual 
and spiritual eclipse that lasted one thousand years, 
known as "the dark ages." No doubt the apostasy 
was quite general, but it would be presumptuous to 
infer that it was universal. Elijah thought the 
apostasy of Israel under the reign of Jezebel was 
universal. In despair and bitterest anguish he ex- 
claimed, '• I only am left.'' He was mistaken, be- 
cause God said there were in Israel seven thousand 
who had not bowed the knee to Baal. According 
to Bryce's Holy Roman Empire, the Papacy claimed 
that, as God ruled the heavens, therefore His vice- 
gerent, the Pope, ought to rule the earth. To en- 
force conformity of worship, for twelve hundred 
years the sword, the stake and all forms of torture 
were employed to exterminate those who bravely 
withstood Popish innovations. Who were the vic- 
tims ? Surely Romanists did not persecute each 



Baptists in History. 425 

other. They were those who heard the voice of God 
above the voice of Caesar. Those who obeyed God 
rather than men. "The sect everywhere spoken 
against/' 

In the sixteenth century, when Luther heralded to 
the world, " The just shall live by faith," he headed 
a revolution that threatened the existence of Roman- 
ism. To welcome the glorious Reformation Bap- 
tists emerged from their hiding places, hoping that 
the day of their deliverance had come, but they 
were doomed to disappointment. While Romanists 
and Protestants hated and persecuted each other, 
they united to exterminate the Baptists, because 
they regarded them, on account of their opposition to 
church and State, as worse than traitors, and looked 
upon them as arch heretics, because they opposed 
baptismal regeneration and infant church member- 
ship. Mosheim, p. 505 : "There were certain sects 
and doctors against whom the zeal, vigilance and 
severity of Catholics, Lutherans and Calvinists were 
.united, and in opposing whose settlement and prog- 
ress, these three communions, forgetting their dis- 
sentions, joined their most vigorous councils and 
endeavors. The object of this common aversion 
were the Anabaptists." The Elector of Hesse, 
Germany, commended in the following language 
the zeal of King Henry Till., who had banished 
Baptists, giving them twelve days to leave his king- 
dom on pain of death if they disobeyed : ' ' There 
.are no rulers in Germany, whether they be Papists 
or Protestants, that do suffer these men. If they 



426 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

come into their hands all men punish them 
quickly." To justify the slaughter of the Anabap- 
tists in the Netherlands, they are accused of the 
abominations of Munster and held responsible for 
indiscriminate bloodshed. The greatest authorities 
have exonerated the Anabaptists. Kurtz's Church 
History, page 243, says : "The leader was Thomas 
Hunger, formerly a Roman Catholic priest, but now 
a Lutheran pastor of the church at Zurick. " Kellar,. 
in his late work on the Reformation, page 370,. 
says: "That Cornelius has shown that in the chief 
points Hunger was opposed to the Baptists." Dr. 
Schaff says : "It is the greatest injustice to make 
the Anabaptists responsible for the extravagances 
that led to the Munster tragedy/' In reply to the 
old Munster slander, Dr. J. Newton Brown said : 

" It is now too late in the day to confound these primitive, 
people with the Munster sect, because both were called by 
their enemies, Anabaptists. As well confound the Baptists 
of the United States with the Mormons of Salt Lake. I 
thought it proper to note this, although no man of intelli- 
gence and candor believes that Baptists so originated. The 
Baptists had been in existence full fifteen hundred years when 
Bockold, Mathys and their frantic followers commenced 
their career of folly and crime. Munster was a German 
forest where the Saxon chased the fierce wild boar, when 
the Master and his disciples laid the foundation of our his- 
tory. The blood of that Caesar who drove Ariovistus to the 
Danube was not yet extinct in the veins of Nero, when Bap- 
tists were clustering in the vales of Thessaly and Tempe, 
and among the hills of Rome. The fading light of letters 
and of art still played in lingering beauty on the marble 
steps of the Acropolis, when hundreds of Athenian and Cor- 
inthian believers were buried with Christ in baptism-'' 



Baptists in History. 427 

Mosheim. p. 493 : "In almost all countries of 
Europe an unspeakable number of these unhappy 
wretches preferred death in its worst forms to a re- 
traction of their errors. ■ IN either the view of the 
flames that were kindled to consume them, nor the 
ignominy of the gibbet, nor the terrors of the sword 
could shake their invincible, but ill-placed, con- 
stancy, or make them abandon tenets that appeared 
dearer to them than life and all its enjoyments. " 

Speaking of Baptists burned at the stake in Eng- 
land, Froude, the historian says : 

"The details are gone — their names are gone. Poor Hoi- 
landers they were, and that, is all. Scarcely the fact seemed 
worth mention, so shortly is it told in a passing- paragraph. 
For them no Europe was agitated, no courts were ordered into 
mourning, no royal hearts trembled with indignation. At 
their death the world looked on complacent, indifferent, or 
exulting. Yet here. too. out of twenty-five poor men and 
women were found fourteen who. by no terror of stake or 
torture, could be tempted to say they believed what they did 
not believe. History for them has no word of praise : yet 
they, too, were not giving their blood in vain. Their lives 
might have been as useless as the lives of most of us. In 
their death they assisted to pay the purchase-money for 
England's freedom.*" 

In England, acts of general pardon were published 
in 1538. '40 and *50. Thieves and vagabonds 
shared the royal favor, but Baptists were excepted. 
Under Bloody Mary a large portion of the blood 
that flowed was from Baptist veins. Queen Eliza- 
beth followed the example of her wicked father, and 
like him banished Baptists, giving them twenty days 
to leave her realm. For two hundred years, accord- 



428 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

ing.to the records of the courts, Baptists were per- 
secuted in England." It has been asserted that 
'•immersion w as founded, discovered and invented" 
in 1641 in England. W. H. King, D.D., of Lon- 
don, England, as the correspondent of the Western 
Recorder, spent several months in the London Mu- 
seum, and after a thorough research said in the Re- 
corder of June 4, 1896 : "I can affirm with the 
most unhesitating confidence that in these volumes 
there is not a sentence or hint from which it can be 
inferred that the Baptists generally, or any section 
of them, or even any individual Baptist, held any 
other opinion than that immersion is the only true 
and scriptural method of baptism, either before the 
year 1639 or after it." 

" In 1526, death, by drowning- and at the stake was the com- 
mon fate of Baptists in Switzerland. Those who were not 
arrested escaped to Moravia, where for a season they were 
tolerated. Finally King- Ferdinand was persuaded to banish 
them, and only a few days were given them to leave his do- 
minions. 

'' It was summer ; harvest was near, and the vintage would 
follow soon ; and humanity would have dictated that even if 
justice demanded the banishment of these men, they should 
have opportunity of gathering the produce of their labors, 
and so be provided with the means of sustenance for their 
families during the approaching winter. But they were or- 
dered to leave in three weeks and three days on pain of 
death." — Cramp, page 267 

•* Without leaving one murmur on record, in solemn, silent 
submission to the Power that governs the universe, and 
causes all things to work for good, they packed up and de- 
parted. 

" In several hundred wagons they conveyed their sick, 
their innocent new-born infants at the breast of their weep- 



Baptists in History. 429 

ing mothers, and their decrepid parents, whose work was 
done, and whose silvery locks told every one that they 
wanted only the solace of the grave. At the frontier they 
filed off, some to Walachia, and others to Transylvania, 
Hungary and Poland. Greater, far greater, for their virtues 
than Ferdinand for all his titles and all his glory."' 

The Word of God declares : "For there is noth- 
ing covered that shall not be revealed; and hid, that 
shall not be known." When Sir Isaac Newton an- 
nounced " that all bodies that reflect light are com- 
bustible," scientific men challenged his statement, 
and triumphantly demanded that he demonstrate by 
burning the diamond. Frankly, he replied, "'the 
diamond is an exception, but I base my observation 
on the uniformity of nature ? s laws, and I believe the 
time will come when the diamond will be burned." 
Long ago the chemist with his blow pipe verified the 
philosopher's prediction. This is an age of tireless 
research. To the interrogation of an imperative 
curiosity the rocks have rendered an account of 
themselves. The leaves that fell before the flood 
have told their story. Not a time-worn mark or 
hieroglyphic found that is not deciphered. Not a 
crumbling monument or a buried city but has been 
reproduced on the canvas of living history. Noth- 
ing will escape the sleepless and persevering anti- 
quarian, with his pick and spade. Investigations 
now being made by Kellar, the great church histo- 
rian, and others, are lifting the clouds and dispell- 
ing the shadows that have so long obscured our 
history. 



430 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 



BAPTIST PERSECUTIONS IN AMERICA. 

Roger Williams, who was raised in the Church of 
England, and a graduate of one of the colleges of 
the chief University, arrived in Plymouth Colony 
1631, and became a minister of the Established 
Church. Soon he commenced preaching Baptist doc- 
trines, for which in 1636 he was excommunicated 
:and compelled in midwinter, in order to avoid im- 
prisonment, to flee through the snows of the wilder- 
ness. After forty days of perilous journey, not 
knowing what bed or bread did mean, he found 
refuge among the Narragansett Indians, where as a 
token of his gratitude to God he founded the city of 
Providence, P. I. Williams was a pious man, and 
by reading his Bible he became dissatisfied with his 
baptism. He became impatient waiting for a Bap- 
tist minister, and finally he was baptized by Ezekiel 
Holliman. In regard to the act I have no doubt it 
was immersion. 1. Protestants and Romanists have 
never disputed that the act was immersion. "One 
year before, in 1638," Dr. Newman, in the Examiner 
of May 13, 1896, tells us : "Rev. Chas. Chauncey 
(afterward President of Harvard College) arrived at 
Plymouth from England. He became assistant pas- 
tor at Plymouth. 1 ' Referring to him, Gov. Brad- 
ford says : "But there fell out some difference about 
baptism, he holding it ought to be by dipping ye 
whole body under water, and that sprinkling was 
unlawful. " 2. The testimony is overwhelming. 
Hev. John Stanford's History First Church, Prov- 



Baptists in History. 431 

idence, R. I. (vol. 4, p. 795 : An. Register), says, 
speaking of Roger Williams and his companions : 
" The y were convinced of the nature and design of 
baptism by immersion.' 1 Dr. W. H. Whitsitt, 
"Question in Baptist History, " page 163, argues 
that Roger Williams was not immersed, and says : 
"Benedict, who claims to have followed the rec- 
ords closely, employs the word baptize and says 
nothing of immersion. " Rev. H. M. King, D.D., of 
Providence, R. I., in reply, said, in Watchman of 
November 18, 1896: " The truth is, that Benedict 
quotes Stanford's language verbatim, immersion and 
all, when he gives an account of the First Church at 
Providence. Yol. 1, p. 475.'' Dr. King continues : 
"To say that Mr. Stanford does not mention im- 
mersion is simply a confession that he never has 
seen Stanford's history," and adds : " If he had not 
referred to the edition, volume and page, we should 
be compelled to conclude that he had never seen 
Benedict either. As it is, we do not know what to 
conclude.'' Dr. A. H. Newman, in the Examiner 
of May 13, 1896, says: "Roger Williams was im- 
mersed, 1 ' and adds : " Dr. Dexter, to whom I wrote 
in 1882, was of the opinion that Roger Williams 
practiced immersion." Prof. H. C. Vedder, in the 
Examiner of May 21, 1896, says : " Roger Williams 
was immersed," and adds : "In fine, anybody who 
asserts that anything but immersion has been prac- 
ticed from the beginning among American Baptists 
assumes the burden of proof, and ingenious guesses 
about Mark Lucar, and things of that sort, are not 



432 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

proofs. They may satisfy the guesser, but he cannot 
fairly ask that anybody else should be satisfied with 
them." 3. For any one who claims to be a Baptist 
to "infer," or presume, that when Baptists use the 
word "baptize," they of course must mean sprink- 
ling, and not immersion, is manifestly unfair to his 
own people. 4. No man of Roger Williams 1 intel- 
ligence would have become dissatisfied with immer- 
sion and sought relief in sprinkling or pouring, 

July 20, 1651, Elders Holmes, Clark and Grandall, 
Baptist preachers of Concord, R. I., while assisting 
Eld. Witter in a meeting near Lynn, Mass., were ar- 
rested and imprisoned in the Boston jail. Holmes was 
fined $150, Clark $100 and Grandall $25. The fines 
of the two latter were paid. Holmes was publicly and 
cruelly flogged. Rev. Henry Dunston, first Presi- 
dent of Harvard College, because he preached a ser- 
mon against infant baptism was removed from his 
position. Two students of the college were ex- 
pelled because during vacation they attended a Bap- 
tist meeting. In 1655, Thomas Gould, of Charles- 
ton, Mass., refused to have his body sprinkled, for 
which he was censured by his church and prosecuted 
in the courts for over seven years. In connection 
with others, he organized a Baptist church in Bos- 
ton. Magistrates, hearing of it, issued warrants re- 
quiring them to attend the Established Church. The 
General Court disfranchised them and imprisoned 
them, and for three years they pursued them with 
fines and imprisonment. In May, 1668, the Gen- 
eral Court sentenced Thomas Gould, Wm. Turner 



Baptists in History. 433 

and John Forman to be banished, and because they 
did not flee they were put in jail for about one year. 
In 1676, the first Baptist meeting-house was built in 
Boston. A law was at once passed confiscating it, 
if they did not cease to meet in it. In 1680, the doors 
were nailed up by order of the court. In 1718, 
fourteen were imprisoned in Boston because they re- 
fused to pay the salary assessment for the parish 
minister. Such instances were general throughout 
what is now known as New England. In the colony 
of Virginia there was a law that required dissenters 
to report, and if they refused, the first time the pen- 
alty was, to be whipped. For the second offense, 
to be whipped twice and publicly acknowledge their 
fault on the Sabbath day in the congregation. Third 
offense, to be whipped every day until obedience 
was secured. Baptist preachers were arrested as 
vagrants and cast into jails for no cause but their re- 
ligious opinions. Rev. Wm. Wickenden preached 
the first Baptist sermon in New York in 1669. He 
was arrested, convicted and put in jail for three 
months. In North Carolina there was a law prohib- 
iting Baptists from building meeting-houses in cities. 
The Georgia Legislature once refused to charter a 
Baptist institution of learning. In 1774, Rev. Isaac 
Backus, a Baptist preacher, chairman of a commit- 
tee appointed by Warren Baptist Association of 
Rhode Island, was the first committee to appear be- 
fore the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, ask- 
ing for religious liberty. The elder Adams sarcas- 
tically told Mr. Backus, ''You might as well try to 



434 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

change the evolutions of the heavenly bodies as to 
dissolve the union of church and State." He was 
mistaken. That Baptist committee was instrumen- 
tal in engrafting the following clause in the Federal 
Constitution : "No religious test shall ever be re- 
quired as a qualification to any office or public trust 
under the United States." In 1775, the Baptists of 
Virginia organized a crusade against the Established 
Church. After their triumph was complete, Hawks, 
the historian, says : "The Baptists seem to have 
known no relenting; their hostility never ceased for 
twenty-seven years." Again he says : " The Estab- 
lishment was finally put down. The Baptists were 
the principal promoters of this work, and in truth 
did more than any other denomination in its accom- 
plishment." Virginia and Rhode Island were slow 
in adopting the Constitution of the United States, 
and to conciliate them the following amendment was 
made to the Constitution : " Congress shall make no 
law respecting an establishment of religion, or pro- 
hibiting the free exercise thereof." Brethren, were 
the millions of martyred heroes misguided, and did 
they suffer in vain ? Yes, if one religion is as good 
as another. Yes, if it matters not what a man be- 
lieves, so he is sincere. Yes, if believers are not 
the only proper scriptural subjects of baptism, and 
if immersion is not essential to Christian baptism. 
Yes, if Christ did not build a church. Yes, if he 
did "build" his church and the gates of hell pre- 
vailed against it. We have followed the Baptists 
through the pages of history, written not by them- 



Baptists in History. 435 

selves, but by opponents. We have learned of 
their struggles and afflictions in their helplessness. 
We have seen them without secular allies and 
worldly advantages, contending valiantly "against 
principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness 
in high places.*' The sculptor with his chisel hews 
the marble block, and makes the beautiful statue. 
The furnace separates the gold from the dross. Vet- 
erans who win great battles are made by constant 
drilling, long marches and rigid discipline. As the 
Captain of our Salvation was made perfect through 
suffering, so God in his providence has brought 
Baptists through many trials and tribulations. 

Baptist doctrines, once so unpopular that it cost 
the life of a believer to avow them, have taken deep 
root in the institutions of the land. We no longer 
stand alone for civil and religious liberty, for sepa- 
ration of church and State, and self-government in 
each. Our principles laid the ax at the root of the 
Upas tree, the one-man power, and sounded the 
death-knell of all forms of absolutism and priest- 
craft. In great religious movements God has highly 
honored us by giving us leadership. It was Win. 
Bordie Gourney, a Baptist preacher, who inaugu- 
rated, in 1805, the voluntary Sunday-school plan, 
when the Robert Raikes movement of hired teachers 
and endowed schools was doomed to die. Win. 
Hughes, a consecrated Baptist layman, founded the 
first Bible society. In 1793, God chose Wm. Carey, 
ironically called the consecrated cobbler by Dean 
Swift, to be the Apostle of Modern Missions. Roger 



436 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

Williams, influenced by his Baptist principles, was 
the forerunner in the establishment of civil and re- 
ligious liberty. The Declaration of Independence 
was denounced by the tyrants of Europe as "an 
Anabaptist document." Baptists were among the 
first and bravest to enlist in the Revolutionary war. 
So distinguished were their services that General 
Washington made most honorable mention of their 
sacrifices and valor in the glorious struggle for inde- 
pendence. To-day civil and religious liberty is no 
dearer to us than to many other denominations. 
Cordially we acknowledge that in our struggles we 
have had the prayers and fraternal aid of many who 
were not Baptists. We only claim what history ac- 
cords, that we were the pioneers who blazed the way, 
and that to our lot has fallen the hardest of the 
fighting. We have furnished more martyrs than 
any other people. When the Lord Chancellor of 
England proposed to award John Locke the honor 
of being the author of religious liberty, he pro- 
claimed to the world the following : "The Baptists 
were the first propounders of absolute liberty, just 
and true liberty, equal and impartial liberty.-' Chief 
Justice Story, speaking of the Baptist settlement of 
Rhode Island, says: "In the code of laws estab- 
lished by them in Rhode Island Ave read for the first 
time since Christianity ascended the throne of the 
Caesars, the declaration that conscience should be 
free, and men should not be punished for worship- 
ping God in the way they were persuaded he re- 
quires. " 



Baptists in History. 437 

Schaff says of the English Baptists: "For this 
change of public sentiment, the chief merit is due to 
the English nonconformists, who in the school of 
persecution became advocates of toleration, espe- 
cially to the Baptists and Quakers, who made reli- 
gious liberty (within the limit of the golden rule) an 
article of their creed, so that they could not consist- 
ently persecute, even if they should ever have the 
chance to do so." Creeds of Christendom, vol. 1, 
page 803. 

Herbert S. Skeats, ' ' A History of the Free 
Churches of England, London," page 24, says: "It 
is the singular and distinguishing honor of the Bap- 
itsts to have repudiated, from their earliest history, 
all coercive power over the consciences and actions 
of men with reference to religion. No sentence is 
to be found in all their writings inconsistent with 
these principles of Christian liberty and willinghood 
which are equally dear to all the free congregational 
churches of England. They were the j^oto-evaiigel- 
ists of the voluntary principle." 

In a foot note the author says : " The author is 
not connected with the Baptist denomination, and 
has therefore, perhaps, greater pleasure in bearing 
this testimony to undoubted historic fact." 

Bancroft, our great American historian, says, vol. 
2, page 60: "Freedom of conscience, unlimited 
freedom of mind, was from the first the trophy of 
the Baptists." 

In 1790 there were 65,000 Baptists in the United 
States. In 1800 there were S0,00o. Now there 



438 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

are not less than 4,250,000, and about 15,000,000 
under our influence. One hundred years ago we 
had one communicant to every sixty of the popula- 
tion, now w T e have one to every eighteen. We have 
become in the South about one-ninth of the popula- 
tion. In 1800 the population of the United States 
was 7,000,000. It is now about 75,000,000. The 
Baptists are sixty-two times as many as they were in 
1800, while the population is only ten times what it 
w r as then. In other words, the Baptists have multi- 
plied these ninety-nine years fifty times more in pro- 
portion than the population. Phenomenally has our 
numerical strength increased, and more so has been 
our gain in wealth, learning, and social power. The 
greatest preacher of the century was a Baptist, 
Charles II. Spurgeon. The richest man in the 
world is a Baptist, and to his honor, and the honor 
of his Baptist faith, he is the most liberal rich 
man of the age. God is abundantly blessing our 
labors in home and foreign fields. The Father has 
given us much, and much fruit will He require. 
When I reflect about our marvelous past and pres- 
ent obligations, I tremble. The children of Israel 
have left a history not richer in great lessons than 
our own. After hundreds of years of Egyptian 
bondage God delivered them. Before them He di- 
vided the waters. He gave them a cloud by day. 
and a pillar of fire by night. Water from the rock 
and manna from heaven, but they forgot God's mer- 
cies and murmured, and wandered forty years in the 
wilderness, a journey that could have been made in 



Baptists in History. 439 

twenty-four hours. At Cadesh Barnea they heard 
the report of the spies, and, lacking faith, they 
turned back and perished in the wilderness. 

Epictetus had these ringing words for his motto, 
;t Know an opportunity." This is the molding and 
golden age of the world. Men read, think, and for 
themselves interpret (rod's word. Shackles forged 
by arrogant tyrants in church and State, and fos- 
tered by superstition, have been broken. God, the 
giver of all light, commands us to let our light 
shine. The organic laws of our republic, supported 
by enlightened public opinion, are our allies. This 
country is our earthly Canaan. This is the jubilee 
epoch in our history. We are not only free to wor- 
ship Grod as our conscience dictates, but free to 
propagate our principles. The Father has given 
His Son "the heathen for an inheritance, and the 
uttermost parts of the earth for a possession. " In 
the language of Caleb, "Let us go up at once and 
possess it, for we are able to overcome it." The 
Baptist denomination is neither an apology nor rem- 
iniscence. It glories in its past, rejoices in the 
present, and, in the words of the great Neander, 
"The Baptists have a future." 

" For truth with tireless zeal they sought, 
In joyless paths they trod, 
Heedless of pain or blame they wrought, 
And left the rest with God. 

; ' But though their names no poet wove 
In deathless song or story, 
Their record is inscribed above, 

Their wreaths are crowns of glory." 



440 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

" Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stead- 
fast, immovable, and always abounding in the work 
of the Lord.'' 





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J. N. HALL. 



CHAPTER XVII. 
J. N. HALL. 

J. N. Hall, the greatest debater in the Baptist de- 
nomination, was born at Pleasureville, K}\, Feb. 
5, 1849. At the age of seven years he went with 
his parents to Ballard county, Ky., where he grew 
to manhood. 

Bro, Hall was reared in the country, and never 
received a college education, yet he is better edu- 
cated than nine out of ten of those who have re- 
ceived diplomas from college or university. Like 
Spurgeon or D. L. Moody, he has risen above al- 
most any of the college men, and, with his oratory 
and keen logic and personal magnetism, he is a 
great power before an audience. 

At the age of fourteen he was converted, under 
the ministry of Elder C. L. Cate, and was baptized 
by the authority of Cane Run Church, Ballard 
county, Ky. Later he joined the Hopewell church, 
same county, where he was licensed to preach on the 
second Saturday in January, 1871, and was or- 
dained the second Sunday in January the next year. 

Bro. Hall has confined his work to the country 
and small towns. He has only held a few meetings 
in the larger centers. He has never had any ambi- 
tion to rise in the ministry, and his greatness has 
been recognized and talked of by others. He never 

(441) 



442 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

sought a pastorate, lie never applied for a place to 
preach. He has taken such work as has come in his 
way, and has not been able to accept one-half the in- 
vitations to hold meetings and to engage in the de- 
fense of Baptist doctrines that have been offered to 
him. 

He has averaged, perhaps, one sermon a day for 
the last twenty years, making not less than ten 
thousand sermons during his ministry of thirty 
years. As he grows older his work accumulates, 
and a recent letter from him to the writer states that 
he seldom stops work before twelve o'clock at night 
after having worked all day. 

As a result of his preaching, hundreds have pro- 
fessed conversion. Sometimes there are as many as 
forty or fifty professions of faith in a protracted 
meeting, and he scarcely ever holds a meeting en- 
tirely barren of results. His prominence as a de- 
bater has caused some slanderers to publish the idea 
that his ministry has been barren of conversions. It 
is a fact that few men have been more successful in 
soul-winning, and the souls won by him always join 
the Baptists. The writer has had the most favor- 
able opportunity of knowing the facts, and he never 
heard of one who joined another denomination after 
being converted in J. N. Hall's meeting. This fact 
is suggestive. When other men can show such a 
record, it will be time then, but not before, to find 
fault with J. N. Hall's manner of preaching. 

For twenty-eight years he had the help of a most 
excellent wife. He married Miss Mollie Earle on 



/. IT. Ball. 443- 

the sixth day of July. 1871, and, after standing by 
bis side in his great work for twenty-eight years, she 
died Dec. 12, 1899. Mrs. Hall was an intelligent 
woman and an untiring worker. Bro. Hall could 
never have accomplished what he lias if it had not 
been for her. The writer knew her personally, 
having been pastor in Fulton, Ky., where Bro. Hall 
and wife held their membership. It seemed to be a 
pleasure to her to have '-fellowship in the gospel 
by assisting her husband. She helped him in his 
correspondence, in his editorial work, and book 
business. She was an helpmeet indeed. She now 
rests from her labors and her works do follow 
her. 

Bro. Hall has proved himself to be a very suc- 
cessful newspaper man. His first venture was in 
1879, when he engaged with Elder F. L. Du Font in 
publishing the Baptist Gleaner, at Fulton, Ky. 
Bro. Du Font, owing to failing health, withdrew 
from the paper, and for some time Bro. Hall edited 
and published the paper alone. In 1881 the Gleaner 
was consolidated with the Baptist Banner, of Cairo. 
111., and for nearly a year he labored with Elder 
W. P. Throgmorton in publishing that paper. 

In 1881 Bro. Hall, in partnership with Elder 
J. B. Moody, revived the Baptist Gleaner, at Ful- 
ton. Ky., and this arrangement was continued for 
about five years, when he sold out to Bro. Moody. 

Later he became connected with the Baptist 
Reaper, and changed its name to Baptist Gleaner. 
and continued its publication for five years, when 



444 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

overwork compelled him to sell out to the Western 

Recorder, and for about two years he was editor of 
the Gleaner Department of that great paper. 

In 1898 the American Baptist Flag of St. Louis, 
Mo., was sold at auction, and J. N. Hall bought it; 
and he has been editor of that paper ever since. 
The Flag has a large circulation; the last published 
statement gave it at fourteen thousand. It is grow- 
ing in circulation and influence, and it is necessary 
to take the Flag into account if one would succeed 
in any great denominational enterprise. It is an 
independent, fearless defender of the faith. 

As a debater Bro. Hall has no equal. His self- 
possession, keen logic, personal magnetism, orator- 
ical power, ready repartee, broad reading, rapid 
speaking, clear enunciation, correct pronunciation, 
distinct articulation and thorough knowledge of all 
theological questions make him invincible in debate. 

His first debate was with Prof. E. C. L. Denton, 
in 1884. Denton was a practiced Campbellite de- 
bater, but he proved to be no match for the young 
David who had just come on the field. Mr. Denton 
has since then, at various times, refused to meet 
Bro. Hall in debate. He has also debated with the 
famous polemic, J. A. Harding, Campbellite, of 
Nashville, Tenn. The defeat of Harding was so 
crushing that his brethren have not called on him 
since to defend their doctrines. He has met such 
Methodist champions as Dr. Jacob Ditzler and 
Dr. E. W. Alderson. His debates have always 
been eminently satisfactory to Baptists, and but few 



J. N. Hall 445 

men have ever been willing to meet him a second 
time in debate. 

One of the greatest triumphs he ever had was in 
his debate with the famous infidel Putman, of New 
York. The debate was held at a place known as 
"Between the Rivers," in Trigg county, Ky., about 
eight miles from Canton, Ky. There was an infidel 
club in that community, and the members of it had 
been constantly challenging the Christian people in 
the community for a debate. They said openly that 
no preacher would dare to meet Ingersoll or Putman. 
At last, when patience has ceased to be a virtue, the 
Baptist pastor in the community accepted their chal- 
lenge, and asked that the infidels bring Ingersoll, 
and he promised to get Hall. The terms were 
agreed upon and the infidel club made up $500 to 
secure Ingersoll, who refused to come, but recom- 
mended Putman, who was President of the Free 
Thought Association of America. 

The time for the debate came on and Mr. Putman 
was present, but Hall, being a very busy man, failed 
to reach the place at the hour the debate was to be- 
gin. The infidels were delighted, and the Christian 
people, of course, were in despair. The time to 
begin was at 7 o'clock p. m. A large congregation 
had gathered and Hall not there. You can imagine 
the situation better than it can be told. 

Mr. Putman arose to speak and stated that it was 
just as he expected, that he had no idea Mr. Hall 
would meet him, but that it made no difference, as 
he was paid to come and discuss the questions at 



446 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

issue for four days, and that he intended to stay the 
four days, " Hall or no Hall. " He spoke two hours, 
and, being both eloquent and able, the effect on the 
congregation was overwhelming. Infidelity was 
flourishing. But its prosperity was to be short- 
lived. 

A boy came into the large building that was fitted 
up for the debate just before Putman finished speak- 
ing, and slipped up to the Baptist pastor and spoke 
some words. When Putman had finished speaking, 
the pastor arose and stated that the boy had come 
from Canton and had brought the news that Bro. 
Hall was there, and, being too tired to get further 
without doing himself an injury, would stay there 
and rest that night and would be on the ground the 
next day in time for the debate. 

The next morning Bro. Hall was there. He took 
Putman to one side and asked him for the arguments 
lie had made the night before, which were given 
him. Without any hesitation he walked to the 
stand, when the time for the exercises came, and 
made his speech in reply to the speech he had not 
heard. He spoke for two hours, and it was so over- 
whelming that the people forgot themselves and all 
the rest of the world for the time being and thought 
only of the great truths that were being expounded 
by Bro. Hall. 

Mr. Putman never rallied again. He made some 
miserable efforts to meet Hall's arguments, and at 
every turn he was met by Hall's keen logic and lucid 
answers. At the end of the second day he an- 



/. N. Hall 447 

nounced that he had "pressing business in New 
York " and left, notwithstanding his boast that he 
had come to stay four days, w ' Hall or no Hall." 

Bro. Hall, being left alone, finished out the time 
preaching the gospel, and his closing sermon was 
from the text: " What Think Ye of Christ?" 
At the conclusion of this great sermon he invited all 
who had been infidels or skeptics, and who now 
thought well of Christ and would like to become fol- 
lowers of Christ, to come forward and give him 
their hands. Forty-seven came forward! It was 
glorious! The backbone of infidelity was broken in 
that community, and it has never rallied since. 
Such have been the good results of these debates. 
He has held over ninety public debates, besides 
written discussions. 

Bro. Hall is just in the prime of life, fifty years 
old. The probability is that twenty-five years at 
least will be yet given to him for active service in 
the Master's work. When his time comes to be 
gathered to the fathers it can be said of him that he 
spent his life "contending earnestly for the faith 
which was once delivered unto the saints " (Jude 3), 
and ihat he has "not shunned to declare all of the 
counsel of God. 1 ' 

Bro. Hall is now living in Fulton, Ky., where he 
edits and publishes the American Baptist Flag. 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. 

[The following speech of J. N. Hall was made in 
reply to a speech by Thomas Williams, a Christa- 
delphian, in a debate at Zion, Ky., which debate 
continued six days, beginning August 1, 1898. Bro. 
Hall's lucid, clear and forcible style is clearly seen 
in this speech, besides it meets the doctrine of the 
death of the soul, as held by Christadelphians, Sev- 
enth Day Adventists and others. There is comfort 
in the speech, as it proves that our loved ones who 
have passed away are not gone forever, but are 
alive with God.] 

j. n. hall/s first speech of one hour. 

Brethren, Moderators, Ladies and Gentlemen : 
We are entering upon the discussion of a subject 
that is fraught with profound interest to everybody 
present. 1 suppose probably no subject could claim 
your attention or arouse your interest so much as 
does the condition of the dead. The thought that 
comes nearest our hearts and provokes our falling 
tears is the recollection of our departed friends, and 
the anxious inquiry springs to our lips : What is the 
present condition of the dead ? What shall be our 
condition when it will be said of us that we are 
dead \ 

We appreciate the very patient attention that has 
been given to our brother while he proceeded to out- 

(448) 



The State of the Dead. 449 

line before you Lis position on the subject; I bespeak 
for the entire discussion of the question that same 
degree of interest, and as fearful as is the thought 
that we may stand by the open sepulchre and look 
in on the pale face of the ones we love, with the ex- 
pectation that they have fallen into utter uncon- 
sciousness, and must sleep without consciousness 
until the resurrection from the dead, terrible, I say, 
as such a truth may be, yet if it be the truth of God's 
word we ought to accept it, and I now assert my 
readiness to accept the position that has been taken 
by this brother, if the passages he has quoted, when 
placed in their right connection with what they 
themselves say, teach any such doctrine. I will be 
willing to believe it if God teaches it. But I am not 
going to accept it because of some sort of an inter- 
pretation my brother may make. I shall follow my 
brother, as he did not follow me, and will not set up 
an opposing line of argument until 1 have noticed 
his. 

I shall first call attention to the fact that he does 
not like the proposition, and yet he volunteered to 
put his name to it; he accepted it, and that makes it 
all right so far as he is concerned. The proposition 
states just what he tried to prove. I do not know 
why he objects to it. He has been trying to impress 
us with the thought that all that constitutes man is 
totally unconscious from the time of death until the 
resurrection. If he didn't try to prove that, what 
did he try to prove '( He wanted the proposition to 
read that man is unconscious from death to the res- 



450 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

urrection. Well, my brother, "all that constitutes 
man" should be understood in that term "man." 
If there is an advantage that is sought to be taken 
in the use of the word "man," then you see why 
the brother wanted the wording changed. But the 
doctrine of the Christadelphians is that all that con- 
stitutes man, and everything belonging to man, 
from the time of death to the resurrection, is uncon- 
scious. That is their doctrine. The proposition 
states it, and I like it, and the brother will be 
obliged to stand by it. I admit that he will have 
trouble to defend it. It says a good deal, but it will 
be hardly possible to prove it. It means, when you 
come to consider the question, that you have got to 
find out what man is. The brother's proposition re- 
quired him to do this. He forgot it; he overlooked 
it; for some reason he did not do it. Do you know 
what constitutes man from anything he said ? He 
undertook to prove that man is made of dust, that at 
least a part of the earth is in his constitution. That 
part is accepted; he proved it, we admit it. He 
quoted a number of Scriptures, I. Cor. xv. 45, "The 
first man is of the earth, earthy." We believe that 
he had earth in him. Gen. ii. T, "The Lord God 
formed man out of the dust of the ground." That 
proposition is admitted. He was formed of the 
dust. But there is another word, "formed,"' in that 
connection the brother did not happen to notice. 
We will see it directly. Gen. iii. 10, "Out of the 
dust wast thou taken." Correct. Job xxxiii. 6, 
" Formed out of clay/' That is right. Gen. iii. 23. 



The State of the Dead. 451 

All right. Gen. xviii. 27, "Abraham but dust and 
ashes." That is right. Abraham was dust and 
ashes; so are we, but is that "all that constitutes 
man?*' The proposition says that all that consti- 
tutes man is unconscious. Dust constitutes man in 
part; the brother proves it, and we admit it, but is 
that all ? Suppose we take a little time to inquire 
into that. Let us see what it does take to constitute 
a man. We admit dust is a part of it. Turn to 
II. Cor. iv. 1, "For though our outward man per- 
ish, jet o;;: 1 inward man is renewed day by day. " 
There is man, an "outward man," and that man 
perishes; the brother proved it. What man is that? 
The man taken out of the ground, made out of clay, 
of the earth, earthy, who goes back to dust and 
ashes; that is the outward man and that man per- 
ishes. Is that all that constitutes man \ Let Paul 
answer, "But our inward man is renewed day by 
day." There is another man, brother, that pertains 
to the constitution of man, and belongs to the prop- 
osition. Here are tivo men, if you please; one man 
of the dust who perishes, and the other man rises 
out of his death that does not perish, and Paul de- 
clares that both are of the same man. 

Eph. iii. 16, '-To be strengthened with might by 
his spirit in the inner man." ?' The inner man." 
What man is that \ Is that the one that came out of 
the dust 2 Is that the one that dies day by day 
when the body is perishing day by day ? Here are 
two men, and they constitute but one man, and the 
brother says that all that constitutes man is totally 



452 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

unconscious from death to the resurrection. That 
is true of the dust man, but there is another man. 
Is it true of him ? Did he prove that the dust man 
dies ? Does anybody deny it \ No, sir. He says 
that all he wants to prove to this audience is that 
when a man is dead he is dead. We all believe 
that, brother. The question is, which man is it that 
is dead 2 We ask this because the Word says there 
are two of them, one on the outside and the other 
on the inside. You prove that the outside man is 
dead and we accept it, but there happens to be a 
passage you have lost sight of that speaks of another 
man, the inner man. 

Rom. vii. 22, "For I delight in the law of God 
after the inner man. " * ~ :f So then with the 
mind (the inner man) I myself serve the law of God, 
but with flesh (the outer man) the law of sin." > 
There are two parts to man, one an outer man, the 
other an inner man. 

I. Pet. iii. 1-4, listen, "Likewise, ye wives * * 
whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning 
of plaiting the hair, and wearing of gold and put- 
ting on of apparel/* That is done on the outer man, 
the body. Do not give your special attention to 
that. Peter says, " But let it be the hidden man of 
the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the 
ornament of a meek and quiet spirit." Let it be 
what ? The adorning of the inner' man. What is 
that ? A meek and quiet spirit. Have you got a 
spirit \ These wives had. Is that their inner man \ 
Yes, Peter says that is the inner man, and they are 



The State of the Dead. 453 

adorning that which is not corruptible. What is it 
that is not corruptible ? This meek and quiet spirit 
is not corruptible. That word " not corruptible " is 
the word which, in Rom. ii. T, is translated "im- 
mortal," "incorruptible" — the very word in origi- 
nal Greek that is translated "immortal" is there 
translated incorruptible and is applied to the spirit 
of the godly women. Didn't you say something 
about finding a place which said something about an 
41 immortal soul " or an ''immortal spirit? " Here 
it is. Look after it a little, if you please. 

All that constitutes man is totally unconscious be- 
fore the resurrection. What constitutes man ? An 
outer man and an inner man; a dust body and a 
spirit; one a dying, perishing body, and the other 
being renewed day by day at the same time. These 
are declarations of God's word. It says this is what 
constitutes a man. 

Let us turn and examine the Scriptures given by 
the brother. He went over a long list of Scriptures 
in a hurry. I took them down as fast as he read, 
I. Cor. xv. 45, kw The first man is of the earth, 
earthy." Correct. Did God form man from the 
dust of the earth \ He did. What part of the man ? 
His body. What of the spirit? Did he form the 
spirit out of dust ? If he did not, where did the 
spirit come from ? 

Job iv. IT, '-Shall mortal man be more just than 
God?" There it is, "mortal." The body is mor- 
tal. Is the spirit mortal ? I challenge the brother 
to say so. The brother challenged me to find a sol- 



454 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

itary passage where it said " immortal soul." You 
find a passage containing the words "mortal soul," 
and I will find right next to it the passage contain- 
ing "immortal soul. " 

Psa. ciii. 14, "He knoweth our frame, he re- 
membereth that we are dust." What is it that is 
dust ? Our mortal body. It goes back to dust. 
But is our spirit dust ? 

Job xxx. 25, "For I know that thou wilt bring 
me to death and to the house appointed to all the 
living." Correct. This is spoken of the body, not 
of the spirit. 

Eccle. ix. 5 makes the statement that "the dead 
know not any thing, neither have they any more a 
reward, for the memory of them is forgotten." The 
brother takes the position that this involves the en- 
tire man. "The living know that they must die; 
but the dead know not any thing." That is going to 
be admitted, but the question arises. What is it that 
is dead ? What is it that is involved in the matter of 
death ? Suppose we read just a little further from 
that same author. Listen: "Also their love, and 
their hatred, and their envy is now perished; neither 
have they a portion any more in anything that is 
done under the sun." You see now he is speaking 
of death, and the relationship of the dead to things 
which are under the sun. This serves as a key. 
What element is it that is being considered as dead ( 
Let us look a little further into that. Does the 
death include the spirit ? The body is dead; that is 
admitted; and the death mentioned there includes 



The State of the Dead. 455 

the spirit or it does not. Is there something that 
survives ? Let us ask this same man that used this 
language in this same book whether the spirit goes 
dowu into death or not. Listen : Eccles. xii. 7 : 
" Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was." 
Does the spirit return to dust ? ' k But the spirit 
goes to God who gave it.'' What is it then that is 
dead? The part that pertains to the knowledge that 
is under the sun. Let us see a little further what is 
meant by the expression, ' * The dead know not an y 
thing." The declaration is, " For he is not the God 
of the dead, but of the living; for all live unto 
him." That is the statement of Jesus Christ. God 
is not the God of the dead, but of the living. But 
didn't all of them die ? Yes. Is not all that con- 
stitutes a man wholly dead ? The brother so affirms. 
If so, God is no longer their God. But He is their 
God ! He is, therefore, the God of the dead because 
they all live unto him. Then they are not dead. 
There is an element in them that is not dead. The 
expression must be taken either in a limited or an 
unlimited sense — please look at another part of the 
sentence — "neither have they any more a reward." 
If the application is of unlimited application to all, 
then this will deny my brother his reward. He is 
now alive; he is going to die; the dead know not 
any thing, neither have they any more a reward. 
His own passage has cut him off from the resurrec- 
tion and from the reward. Listen to Job vii. 9,10 : 
14 He that goeth down to the grave shall come up no 
more. He shall return no more to his house; neither 



456 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

shall his place know him any more." This declara- 
tion is to be taken in an unlimited or in a limited 
sense. The statement is that those that go to the 
grave shall come up no more. It is a declaration of 
the total annihilation of the dead and a denial of the 
resurrection from the dead, if taken in an unlimited 
sense. We must determine the sense of our Scrip- 
tures. So the passage is to be taken in a limited 
sense, and the reference is to those under the sun 
who shall have no more knowledge of anything that 
takes place. But the spirit, which is a part of the 
essential being as God gave it, still lives. The 
inner man returns to God, who gave it. It follows, 
then, that the proposition is untrue so far as that 
passage is concerned. 

But he also called attention to another passage; 
let me turn and read, Job xiv. 10 : " But man dieth, 
and wasteth away; yea, man giveth up the ghost, and 
where is he ? " Giveth up what % The ghost, "and 
where is he ? " "As the waters fail from the sea, and 
the flood decayeth and dryeth up; so man lieth 
down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, 
they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep. 
* * - If a man die, shall he live again? All the 
days of my appointed time will I wait." What is 
it that dies ? The body. What is it of which Job 
is speaking ? The body, that which goes down to 
the grave. The spirit does not go to the grave. 
Solomon says the spirit returns at death to God who 
gave it; the body returns to dust. If the phrase 
body does not include the spirit, the proof is not to 



The State of the Dead. 457 

be found in this passage for the support of his prop- 
osition. That it does not include it in this passage 
is found in the fact that Solomon says the spirit re- 
turns to God who gave it. 

It is said that God formed man from the dust of 
the ground { Did God form man's spirit from the 
dust of the ground { i ' God f ormeth the spirit of 
man within him" — Zech. xii. 1. Here is the same 
word "formed " that is used in Gen. ii. 7. That 
body that the brother says was made out of the dust 
of the ground was unconscious until the time that 
God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. 
That body was nothing but a magnificent corpse 
until God gave unto it the breath of life. But did 
God make the breath of life of the dust ? Was it 
just breath, or breath having life in it { Zechariah 
declares that God " f ormeth the spirit of man within 
him. " That is made a direct part of the matter of 
his creation. 

The brother referred also to Eccles. iii. 18: "I 
said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons 
of men, that God might manifest them, and that 
they might see that they themselves are beasts. For 
that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth the 
beasts; even one thing befalleth them; as the one 
dieth so dieth the other; yea, they have all one 
breath; so that a man hath no pre-eminence above 
a beast; for all is vanity. All go to one place; all 
are of the dust and all turn to dust again.'' The 
brother presumes to say as a conclusion of this state- 
ment that there is no distinction between man and 



458 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

beast. They both go to one place; they all are of 
dust and all turn to dust again. Now the very next 
sentence, which the brother neglected to quote, 
gives us the key to the situation and makes a state- 
ment of the true nature of the case : " Who knoweth 
the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of 
the beast that goeth downward to the earth? " It is 
true that the body of the beast and the body of the 
man are alike, but is it true of their spirits, of their 
inner man \ The very next sentence declares that 
when you come to their spirits you strike the differ- 
ence. The spirit of the man goeth upward at death, 
and the spirit of the beast goeth downward at death. 
God made the beasts and gave them their breath, 
but he did not breathe into their nostrils of the 
breath of life. The beast hath breath and flesh, and 
it comes from the dust. In these respects man's 
body is like them, but when man comes to die the 
spirit returns to God who gave it and goeth upward. 
But this is not so of the beast. 

Psa. cxlvi. 3 : " Put not your trust in princes, nor 
in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His 
breath goeth forth; he returneth to his earth; in that 
very day his thoughts perish.'" What is the psalmist 
David talking of in this connection \ It is well 
enough to look at the connection, and by doing it 
we are able to escape false conclusions we otherwise 
would fall into. The psalmist is talking about men 
who put their trust in the princes of this world. He 
says, "Put not your trust in princes that cannot 
carry out their purposes." They have no perpe- 



The State of the Bead. 459 

tuity of life in this world: when they die their pur- 
poses perish. That word is also translated -'pur- 
poses,*' ; •intentions." "designs." They fail : they 
are unable to carry out their plans: they die. It has 
no reference whatever to their condition after death. 
These princes may still live — do live, because God 
is the God of the living. 

Then we have the statement that Hezekiah prayed 
that God would spare his life yet for fifteen years. 
The brother says. "Did God spare his life ]" Yes. 
Would he have lived if God had not spared his life ? 
No. Would he have died \ Yes. In what sense ( 
Total unconsciousness \ That is the very point the 
brother undertakes to prove. He would have been 
dead as to his body: would he have been dead as to 
his inner man ? All men have an inner man. When 
God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and 
man became a living soul, did he give the first man 
what he expected every other man to have \ Did he 
give what those wives had. a spirit \ Did he give 
what the Corinthians had, a spirit \ If he did, did 
that die \ If it did the brother has not yet proved it. 
The brother says, suppose he had died and gone to 
heaven, would it have been just to Hezekiah to let 
him stay out of heaven fifteen years { Yes. Why \ 
Because God has so constituted life in its natural 
relations as to make us love life. So long as we 
look at life from this side of the grave, life is desir- 
able; our relationships here have by nature and asso- 
ciation become sweet: so if. like Paul, we could 
have a glimpse of paradise, we still would have a 



460 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

desire for the things of this world, unless we, like 
Paul, had been crucified to the world and the world 
unto us. There is not any inconsistency in this. 

But the brother asks what is the need of the res- 
urrection if the dead are now alive. He thinks it 
would be cruel to bring them back to their earthly 
bodies. Why bring back the dead from heaven ? 
For instance : Abel has been in heaven ever since 
the time he passed away. Why call the spirits back 
and put them in mortal bodies ? We do not come 
back and enter into mortal bodies. In the resurrec- 
tion from the dead they get immortal bodies; their 
bodies become immortal, like their spirits in that 
glorious operation. 

Then the brother came to the New Testament. 
He said : " Lazarus is dead.'* Jesus Christ said it. 
Was lie dead ? He was; but in what sense was he 
dead \ Was he dead in the sense of being totally 
unconscious % Was everything that constituted Laz- 
arus dead ? Was his inner man dead ? His spirit 
dead? The declaration is, iC The spirit returns to 
God who gave it." If that was true of anybody in 
Solomon's time, wasn't it just as true in Lazarus' 
time \ If Solomon's spirit went to God at death, 
and everybody in his time went to God in spirit at 
death, so did Lazarus. Then the spirit of Lazarus 
was not dead. The body died. There is no doubt 
about that. Where did he come from % If he was 
dead in spirit he would have come down from 
heaven; whereas the dead Lazarus came forth from 
the grave. Was he in the grave ? He was. He 



The State of the Dead. 461 

had died and been buried. Whenever resurrection 
comes, the spirit comes to the body and the body is 
obliged to come out of the grave. The dead body is 
revived and the man lives. 

Then the brother came to I. Cor. xv. I will turn 
and read that statement : ww If there be no resurrec- 
tion of the dead, then is Christ not risen; and if 
Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain. 
Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God be- 
cause we have testified of God that he raised up 
Christ, whom he raised not up if so be that the dead 
rise not. For if the dead rise not then is not Christ 
raised; and if Christ be not raised your faith is vain, 
ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are 
fallen asleep in Christ are perished." The argu- 
ment the brother makes is drawn from the expres- 
sion, kt They which are fallen asleep in Christ are 
perished, ,, if the dead rise not. The point in the 
argument is this : "If there be a conscious condition 
of the spirit between death and the resurrection, 
then there could not be any perishing even if their 
bodies did not rise, since there is an element of 
their being which is already saved. Paul's entire 
argument is hypothetical; he bases the argument on 
a supposition. He says, " Ye are yet in your sins 
if Christ be not raised from the dead,' 1 yet the Cor- 
inthians had already received the forgiveness of sins. 
He bases the assurance that there was remission of 
sins on the resurrection from the dead, and yet 
whether there was a resurrection from the dead or 
not, they had had remission of sins. He says, 



462 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

" Your faith is vain, vet they had faith." In the 
very same hypothesis Paul argues that if there is no 
resurrection of the dead, then you have got no spirit 
and they that have departed have no existence at all. 
Resurrection from the dead is based on the idea that 
man is potentially immortal and resurrection from 
the dead is a necessity for the development of im- 
mortality. If there is no resurrection from the 
dead, then there is no immortality; on the same 
ground you have no faith, and no remission of sins; 
yet you did have faith, and remission of sins, resur- 
rection or no resurrection. To show that his argu- 
ment is purely hypothetical he proceeds to say in the 
twentieth verse : u Now is Christ risen from the 
dead and become the first fruits of them that slept." 
Therefore they that sleep in Christ are not perished; 
therefore your faith is not vain, our preaching is not 
vain, your sins are pardoned. Therefore the hypo- 
thetical argument Paul makes, instead of supporting 
my brother's position, is directly opposed to it. 

His next point was the resurrection of Jesus 
Christ. He asks whether Christ was dead. There 
is a sense in which Christ's death involves a separa- 
tion from God. That is the meaning of the word 
death, separation. In that dying hour Christ looked 
up and said, " My God, my God, why hast thou for- 
saken me ?" Does God forsake him { Does he die? 
Yes. Therefore the Son of God separated from the 
Father goes down in the grave and he speaks of it 
as "death." And I wish to call attention to a 
thought just here. My brother intimates that Christ 



The State of the Dead. 463 

became as totally unconscious in his death as we are 
in ours. According to his conception, Jesus Christ 
was wholly without knowledge from the day of his 
death to the time of his resurrection. His divinity 
as well as his humanity both alike slept. Listen to 
what Jesus said in his departing hour. He looks up 
into the face of the Father and says, "Father, into 
thy hand I commend my spirit." Where did his 
spirit go \ Into the hands of God. Unless his sol- 
emn declaration in the dying hour was false, his 
spirit did not go down into the sleep of death. Did 
he have a spirit ? . He says he did, and he com- 
mended it to God. Spirits do not go into the grave; 
spirits do not return to dust for they are not taken 
from the dust. 

I believe I have noticed every point taken by the 
brother except the last one. He says the primary 
meaning of the word soul is ;t breathing creature;'' 
it is used very frequently of soul and of spirit in the 
Bible; it is applied to beasts and various other 
things; it is also applicable to man and God. We 
have got to determine by the context what the mean- 
ing of the word is. That is granted. Nearly any 
word you may think of in connection with the Scrip- 
tures has various applications, and you have to de- 
termine its meaning by the context. Therefore 
there is very little to be drawn from the statement 
of the original word rendered soul and spirit and 
sometimes applied to beasts and to man and some- 
times to God. If it always meant a mortal being, 
then God is mortal; if it sometimes means an im- 



464 Pillars of OrtJwdoxy, or DefencU vs of the Faith. 

mortal being, then it may be so applied to man. I 
have called your attention to the line of argument 
drawn by the brother. There is one point further. 
lt The grave cannot praise thee; neither any that go 
down into silence.*' Who goes to the grave, to this 
pit of corruption \ The outer or the inner man ? 
The key to the whole situation is found in this sim- 
ple definition of what constitutes man. If the fleshly 
body is all there is of him, then the fleshly body in 
death is unconscious.. If there is an element in man 
separate from the dust body which at death goes to 
God, then it does not go to the grave. All these 
passages the brother stated of going to the grave, of 
having no knowledge under the sun, our purposes 
perishing — all that pertains to the grave. It in- 
volves the body and does not involve the spirit. The 
brother has to prove that the spirit man also goes 
down to the grave, as does the dust man, and when 
he has established that proposition he will make 
some start to prove his doctrine. 

If I have overlooked a passage that you quoted 
and you will now call my attention to it, I will look 
at it before I proceed. Name it and I will now turn 
and look after it, or name it later on. Then let us 
proceed to inquire a little into the nature of this sub- 
ject. 

Gen. i. 26, Man was made in the image of God. 
"And God said, let us make man in our image and 
after our likeness/' What is God's image or like- 
ness as it is expressed in man 1 Man was to have 
dominion over all earthly creation. It may be well 



The State of the Dead. 465 

to find something further about the construction of 
man who was made in God's image, and given this 
dominion over nature. Man's body could not have 
that ascendency necessary for this dominion. There 
are ten thousand things in nature that have decided 
advantages over our bodies, but there is nothing in 
nature that has an ascendency over our spirits. 
When it comes to his conceptions, his thoughts, his 
imaginations, his discoveries, his inventions, man 
rises in the scale of his being until he ascends above 
everything else that has earthly being. Whatever 
it is in man that is in God's image it was to have 
dominion. Flesh cannot do it; therefore flesh is not 
the part of man made in the image of God. Man's 
body could not be made in the image of God. Turn 
to Isa. xl. ii., "To whom will you liken God \ To 
what image will ye compare him ? " You can make 
an image of man; you can make it out of clay, out 
of brass, out or gold, out of silver, and it is the dec- 
laration of Isaiah that nobody can make a likeness 
of God. That man and God are not in the same 
image; if they were you could make an image of God 
as easily as you can make an image of man. 

In Acts xvii. 29, "Forasmuch, then, as we are the 
offspring of God, we ought not to think that the 
godhead is like unto gold or silver or stone, graven 
by art of man's device. *' Any sculptor can make 
an image of man, but no one can make an image of 
God, and this shows us that our bodies are not in 
God's image. 

It is dishonoring to God to attempt to make a 

30 



466 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

likeness of him. In Roin. i. 23, "They changed 
the glory of the incorruptible God into an image 
made like to corruptible man.'' That was a dis- 
grace to God to make an attempt at it, but it would 
not be a disgrace if man's corruptible body was in 
God's image. 

Phil. ii. 6-8, "Who, being in the form of God, 
thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but 
made himself of no reputation, and took upon him 
the form of a servant and was made in the likeness 
of man." Here is a change on the part of Christ 
from the likeness of God to the likeness of man. 
He took on himself our flesh and was made like we 
are in body. That shows that our bodies are not 
like God's image. Who took on the likeness of the 
flesh? Christ. But have you found that the outer 
man, or dust man, that constitutes man as to his 
flesh, and his inner man, are both distinct things, 
and that this outer man is not in the image of God ? 
It is merely of the earth, and goes back at death to 
dust. If there is, therefore, any likeness of God in 
man, it must be his inner man. He has a dual na- 
ture; his dust or material body is not in God's 
image. 

But read again John iv. 24, "God is a Spirit, and 
they that worship him must worship him in spirit 
and in truth." There is God's character, God's na- 
ture. It is spirit. Let us see if we do not find an 
endowment of that element in man which is called 
spirit, and that the real man made in the image of 
God will turn out to be the spirit which does not die. 



The State of the Dead, 467 

Horn. viii. 16, ^The spirit itself beareth witness with 
our spirit that we are the children of God." God 
is spirit, and the relationship between us and God is 
of a spiritual character. 

Can this dust body of man be like a spirit ( Luke 
xxiv. 36-ttO, "When Jesus stood in their midst they 
were terrified and affrighted, supposing they had 
seen a spirit, but Jesus said, ' A spirit hath not flesh 
and bones as ye see me have. 1 ' Dust bodies do 
have flesh and bones, and spirits do not. Spirits 
cannot, therefore, be in the form of dust bodies. 
Now, then, whence came this spirit that does 
not have flesh and bones and that was not made of 
dust? Zech. xii. 1, k 'He formeth the spirit of man 
within him." Notice, he is speaking of the crea- 
tion. Where did the spirit come from ? God. 
How X God formed it in man. When God stretched 
out the heavens and laid the foundations of the 
earth that is the creation period, what else did he 
do ? He formed the spirit of man within him. 
When % At the beginning. How ? When God 
made man out of the dust of the ground, he was a 
corpse; it takes another act, a creative act, for that 
man to have life. God formed the spirit within 
him, that is what Zechariah says. Moses says that 
God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and 
man became a living soul. Whence, then, came 
the spirit ? From God. At death what becomes 
of the spirit ? The body goes back to dust, but the 
spirit that came from God was formed in man at the 
time of the creation, that spirit thus formed at death 



468 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

goes back to God who gave it, and you have the 
same lifeless corpse you had at the beginning. 
What is the distinction between man now at death 
and Adam at the creation? He is a corpse; he was 
then, he is now. There was a period in which lie 
lived. Now he is dead. Where is his spirit gone ? 
To God who gave it. As to his spirit, he is not 
dead; as to the outer man, he is dead. 

Acts vii. 59, "And they stoned Stephen, calling 
upon God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my 
spirit. 1 ' Who said it? Stephen. When? At 
death, when he was dying, he looked up to God and 
said, 1 am now going, I am taking my departure; I 
know where my body is going, down under these 
stones in death. Is that all that constitutes a man ? 
Listen to his statement : " Lord, receive my spirit/' 
When Jesus was on the cross he cried with a loud 
voice, saying, "Father, into thy hands I commit my 
spirit." Does all that constitutes a man become un- 
conscious at death ? 

But the question may arise, Can spirits have con- 
scious being without material bodies ? The decla- 
ration is made that God is a spirit; God's body is 
not made of dust; it does not have material organi- 
zation; he is nothing but spirit. Jesus Christ was 
spirit before he became incarnate. Then he had a 
body, and continued in the body until death, and 
from the time of death until the resurrection he was 
without a material body; at the resurrection the 
spirit and body came together. Angels are said to 
be the spirits sent forth to administer to them that 



The State of the Bead. 469 

shall be heirs of salvation, and jet they have no ma- 
terial bodies; they are not made of dust. It is, 
therefore, possible for the spirit of man to exist sep- 
arate from his material body and still have conscious 
being in the presence of God after death. 

Now a few words about immortal soul; the broth- 
er did not find it, and nobody else finds the expres- 
sion, "immortal soul," yet I showed you that there 
is an incorruptible spirit; the same word translated 
immortal in other places, a spirit undying, that 
abides and will continue. The word u mortar' is 
always applied to the flesh and never applied to the 
spirit, and there is not any statement that at death 
the spirit dies. James says that the body without 
the spirit is dead, but the spirit is not dead. It is 
that inner man that we claim is still conscious after 
the death of the body. 

I have called attention to the fact that the flesh 
body is not in the image of God; let us see if the 
spiritual man is in the image of God. Horn. viii. 29: 
"For whom he did foreknow, he also did predes- 
tinate to be conformed to the image of his Son.'' In 
the transaction in the garden of Eden there Avas a 
twofold nature in man. Who was it stretched forth 
his hand and took the fruit ? Adam. What part of 
Adam ? His hand. What was it ate of the fruit ? 
His mouth; his material body. What was it trans- 
gressed the law i His material body, the only man 
present. Was there no other man present except 
that i Where was the spirit that Zechariah said God 
formed within him ( Did not that have a part in it ? 



470 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

Had man's will, his conscience, his mind, no part in 
the act of disobedience? The man spirit was in- 
volved as well as his body, and he lost the image of 
God in that transaction. The declaration was. "In 
the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely 
die."' In some sense or other man died that day; 
he did not die as to his body; he died in the sense of 
a moral death, in the sense of a separation from 
God. In Col. iii. 10, we read, 4 -And have put on 
the new man which is renewed in knowledge after 
the image of him that created him." It becomes 
like a new creation. The man dead in trespasses 
and sins has been brought to life. What man is 
that ? The inner man. Where does he go at death I 
To God. Stephen's spirit returned to God; Jesus' 
spirit returned to God. The thief's spirit went 
with Christ. What died \ The body? No, the 
spirit, the inner man, that God said should die in 
the day that he ate of the fruit, not in the sense of 
being totally extinct, but in the sense of separation 
from God. The body is the outer man, the mortal; 
that dies in the sense of becoming unconscious and 
going back to dust. The word mortal means sub- 
ject to death; the word immortal means exemption 
from death. Death as to the body means that state 
of being in which there is a total and permanent 
cessation of the vital functions and sensations of 
life, an extinction of bodily life. That is Webster. 
What of the soul, Mr. Webster? Spiritual death, a 
perversion of the soul by sin, loss of the favor of 
God. 



The State of the Bead. 471 

Can man be dead and at the same time be alive ? 
Can the spirit be dead and the body alive ? Let us 
see if it is possible. "She that liveth in pleasure is 
dead while she vet liveth. *' There is life and death 
both in the same person. Look a little further;, 
Col. ii. 13, ''And you, being dead in your sins and 
the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened 
together with him." These people who he here 
says had been dead were alive all the time and at 
the very time that he says they were dead. That 
shows that there is one element in man that can be 
dead, while at the same time there is another ele- 
ment in man that can be alive. Here are two men, 
an inner and an outer man, and while the inner man 
is dead in trespasses and sins, the outer man is very 
much alive. When the outer man is dead and goes 
into the grave, the other man lives in the spiritual 
realm just the same. 

Away back in the Old Testament lie is finding all 
his proof in the use of hypothetical expressions. I 
am going back to the Old Testament. In Isa. 
xiv. -1-9 you will read what the prophet said of Baby- 
lon : ' ' How hath the oppressor ceased ! * " * 
hell from beneath is moved to meet thee at thy com- 
ing; it stirreth up the dead for thee. v That word 
hell is translated from the Hebrew word sheol, which 
represents both the grave and the state of the dead 
in the grave. He told us yesterday that everybody 
in sheol had quit thinking, quit acting, quit speak- 
ing. Listen: "It stirreth up the dead for thee. " 
What ! I thought if they were clean dead it could 



472 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

not stir them up. God's word says they are there 
in sheol, even all the chief ones of the earth, and all 
btirred up. Let us look a little further. Ezek. 
xxxi. 15,17: "In the day when he went down to 
the grave I caused a mourning. * * * I made 
the nation to shake at the sound of his fall when I 
cast him down to hell with them that descend into 
the pit. * * '* This is Pharaoh and all his mul- 
titude/' They are dead, and in the grave, and in 
hell. Now compare these words on the same sub- 
ject : "The strong among the mighty shall speak to 
him out of the midst of sheol " — dead, buried, in 
hell, in sheol and yet talking ! That is from the* 
Old Testament, the very place where he goes to 
prove that everything dead is silent, right out of 
those same Scriptures we read that in hell they 
speak. 

I want to quote another passage, a declaration of 
the Old Testament. The Scriptures talk about being 
gathered to the fathers. Listen: "Gen. xxv. 8, 
"And Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a 
good old age, an old man and feeble of years, and 
was gathered to his people." You cannot have a 
gathering to people without considering the idea of 
a multitude. Abraham's body was never buried 
with his people; it was buried by the side of his wife 
in the cave of Machpelah; yet God's word declares 
before he was buried that he died and was gathered 
to his people. The idea of being gathered to peo- 
ple carried the idea of a multitude. You have got 
to have a multitude in existence to which Abraham 



The State of the Dead. 473 

-went after his death. From the New Testament, 
before this debate closes, we are going to find this 
man Abraham alive with his people. 

I want to notice another thought; I want to tell 
you that the ordinance of baptism is a contradiction 
of this man's doctrine. Rom. vi. 3. " As many as 
were baptized into Christ were baptized into his 
death. Therefore we are buried with him by bap- 
tism into death, that like as Christ was raised up 
from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so 
we also should walk in newness of life." In this 
we have a picture of the burial of a dead bod v. 
Speak to the administrator and say : What are you 
doing '. Burying the old man. What are you do- 
ing I Raising up the new man. Here is a repre- 
sentation of the death and burial of the body and 
the resurrection of the body. What is the condition 
of the man between the burial and the resurrection \ 
Is he dead \ You do not bury a man until he is 
dead. Were you clean good dead when you were 
put under the water ? Is there a conscious or an un- 
conscious condition represented by the figure be- 
tween the burial and the resurrection \ I come to 
tell you this morning that the doctrine the brother 
undertakes to impress upon us degrades man to the 
level of the brute; it is a gospel of dirt. 

I propose to show you that all that constitutes 
man does not die at death. Turn, if you please, to 
Luke xx. 37. 38. *• Now that the dead are raised, 
even Moses showed at the bush, when he said, I am 
the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. God is 



474 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

not the God of the dead, but of the living; for all 
live unto him.*' Kemember, all three of these men 
were dead at the time this language was uttered. 
Now, if my brother is in the right, these dead men 
were entirely dead, clean, good dead, and they have 
no life of any sort. Then God is not their God. 
But if there is still an element of their being that is 
alive, that has survived death, then God is their 
God, for he is not the God of the dead, but of the 
living. How can he be the God of Abraham, Isaac 
and Jacob when they are dead, according to my 
brother's argument? The answer is here : " For all 
live unto him." Every one of them had their spirits 
return back to God and are still alive and in his 
presence, in his sight. He knows of them; he is 
their God. That includes Abraham, Isaac and 
Jacob, and all of the dead until time shall be no 
more. Jesus positively says they are all alive, and 
I am not, therefore, going to believe that they are 
all dead in the sense my brother believes they are 
dead. 

Turn to Matt. x. 28, "Fear not them that can kill 
the body, and after that have no more that they can 
do, but rather fear him that is able to destroy both 
soul and body in hell.' 1 Will you notice, man can 
kill our bodies, but they cannot kill our souls ? 
That shows that the body and soul must be distinct. 
If my body and soul were the same thing, and if a 
man was to kill my body he would kill both togeth- 
er. If body and breath are all there is of man, man 
can kill him. Can any man kill him ? Jesns Christ 



The State of the Dead. 475 

says lie cannot do it. Why can't lie ? Can he kill 
the body? Yes. Can he kill the soul? No. Then 
the body and soul are two distinct things. This 
shows that the spirit or soul in the man is distinct, 
from the body and is not killed with the body. 

Look further : Luke ix. 29, "And as he prayed, 
the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his" 
raiment was white and glistening. And, behold, 
there talked with him two men, which were Moses 
and Elias." Both these talking with him, talking- 
with Christ during his personal ministry, Moses and 
Elias! Talking? Jesus said they did. "Who 
appeared in glory, and spoke of his decease which he 
should accomplish at Jerusalem." They talked to 
him about his death. Who was Moses ? He died 
away back yonder. Who was Elijah ? He was" 
translated hundreds of years before and went back 
to God. Both gone. When have they had resur- 
rection \ How did they get back I My brother says 
that all that constitutes man is totally unconscious 
from death to the resurrection. Was everything- 
that constituted these men unconscious \ If so, how 
could they get back and talk ? God's word says 
they did and I believe it. Therefore his proposition 
is untrue. The presence of spirits who have come 
back and have been seen and heard and made them- 
selves known is positive proof of the fact of the un- 
truthfulness of the proposition. He could not make 
the proposition stand to save his life if there were 
only this passage. But we have only given you a 
start to show the absurditv of this doctrine of dirt 



476 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

which reduces man to the level of the brute and 
ignores the fact that they, having come from God, 
return to him again. 

We come to the thief on the cross. Let us take a 
little time to look into the question about the thief. 
You will find a reference to it in Luke xxiii. 4^. 
The Saviour was on the cross dying as a malefactor; 
one thief reviled him and the other prayed to him, 
and his prayer was this : -• Lord, remember me when 
thou comest into thy kingdom." The brother inti- 
mates that prayer contemplated that the thief had an 
idea of the future coming kingdom, and when the 
Saviour came in that kingdom he wanted to be re- 
membered. It may be this was the idea of the thief 
since he probably was himself a Jew, or at least had 
associated with the Jews, for he was put to death in 
Jerusalem, and, no doubt, therefore thought that 
there was coming a time when the Messiah's king- 
dom was to come in Jerusalem, and he wanted to be 
remembered in that kingdom. But Christ at once 
understood his difficulty, and he knew how to deal 
with it. Not away beyond the future will I hear 
your prayer; I keep no poor penitent man waiting 
hundreds of years for the answer to his prayer; you 
may fix your time, but now is God's accepted time. 
To-day I will answer you; right now shalt thou be 
with me in paradise. Not away beyond in the future 
when you think I am coming in my kingdom in this 
materialistic reign, but to-day. How is Jesus going 
to answer it ? What is he going to give him ? Into 
what will he take him ? Jesus solves the problem 



The State of the Bead. All 

and looks into his face and says : "TO-DAY shalt 
thou be with me in paradise." 

Let us see if we can find where paradise is; if we 
can, we can find where the thief is and where Christ 
is. Turn to Revelation ii. 7, "To him that over- 
cometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is 
in the midst of the paradise of God." There is par- 
adise. Jesus said to the thief, " To-day shalt thou 
be with me in paradise." Where is paradise ? The 
tree of life is in the midst of paradise. Wherever 
you find paradise you will find the tree of life in the 
middle of it; wherever you find the tree of life you 
will find paradise. If I could make a circle on this 
board and draw a tree in the middle of it, wherever 
you find the circle you find the tree. Let us take 
this tree as a pointer. Turn to Rev. xxii : "And 
he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as 
crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and the 
Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either 
side of the river, was there the tree of life." Who 
said that \ John. What did he see \ He saw the 
tree of life. Where did he see it \ In the middle 
of the street, and on either side of the river. There 
is God on his throne, and the river proceeding out 
of the throne. Where is the tree of life ? In the 
middle of paradise. Where else is the tree of life? 
In the midst of the city. Then the city and para- 
dise is the same place. The 14th verse : "Blessed 
are they that keep his commandments, that they 
may have a right to the tree of life, and may enter 
through the gates into the city.'' Where is the tree 



478 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

of life i In the city. Who has a right to it \ They 
that do his commandments. When do they enter ? 
Whenever they pass out of this life and go into the 
holy city. Where is paradise '. God's throne is in 
it; the tree, of life stands in it, and they enter it that 
keep his commandments. That is where the thief 
went that day. That is the heaven we speak of. 

Turn to II. Cor. xii. 1 : " I knew a man in Christ 
above fourteen years ago; whether in the body or 
out of the body, I cannot tell/* Did you ever 
know a man to talk like that who was a Christadel- 
phian ? I know Paul never knew a Christadelphian. 
If my brother had been there he would have said : 
"You are the most poorly instructed Christadel- 
phian I ever saw ! Doirt you know a man could 
not be out of his body 2 When a man is out of his 
body he is dead. Have you lost your mind ? Has 
anybody hit you on the head with a club ? What is 
the trouble that you cannot tell whether a man can 
be in the body or out? Don't you know if he gets 
out he goes out like a candle ? I tell you, Paul 
wasn't a Christadelphian. "Plow that he was 
caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable 
words which it is not lawful for a man to utter." It 
is a vision, a revelation. God makes it and Paul 
calls it such. There was paradise to which the thief 
went. The declaration is that the tree of life is in 
paradise, and the tree of life is in the city of God. 
If it is, you might reasonably expect to see marvel- 
ous things. What did I13 say? Listen: "And 
heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a 



The State of the Dead. 479 

man to utter." Heard what % Heard words that a 
man could not be allowed to utter." Who did the 
speaking '( Those in paradise. He looked in and 
saw paradise. He looked in and saw paradise and 
heard somebody talking. 

He had a vision, a revelation from God. There was 
no mere dream about it. He heard unspeakable words. 
Heard what ? Words. What are words ? Signs of 
ideas. What are ideas ? Conceptions of conscious 
minds. Can a man who is unconscious express him- 
self in words ? Did Paul hear words ? He says he did. 
Where \ In paradise. Where is paradise \ Up where 
the tree of life is in the city of God. What have 
they there \ Words. What kind of words ? Unspeak- 
able words which it was not lawful that man should 
utter, which he could not repeat. I say, therefore, in 
heaven, in paradise, they have language there, people 
talking, and when a man is enwrapped in vision, in a 
revelation from God, he can hear the words of para- 
dise that would not be lawful to repeat here. I tell 
you, those of you who have lost friends in this life, who 
have stood by the side of the open, cheerless grave, lift 
up the eye of faith, the heart of hope, and realize 
that those who have departed have entered into the 
paradise of God, and that they, with faithful Abra- 
ham and all the good, are now singing the songs and 
talking in a language that you could not utter. Let 
me read you some statements : 

Conscious beings only can utter words; Paul heard 
words uttered in paradise. Therefore paradise is a 
place of conscious beings. 



480 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

God's throne is in paradise. God's throne is 
where God is; therefore God is in paradise. 

God is in paradise; at death the spirit goes to 
God; therefore departed spirits are in paradise. 

Departed spirits are in paradise; they enter para- 
dise at death and leave it at the resurrection. There- 
fore in paradise we have conscious spirits from death 
until the resurrection. 

Therefore my brother's proposition from one end 
of it to the other is untrue. 

I turn to Phil. i. 21-25, "For me to live is Christ 
and to die is gain, * * yet what I shall choose 
I wot not. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having 
a desire to depart and be with Christ; which is far 
better. * * This is what Paul says. I am in 

a condition of trouble. I am in a strait; I have to 
choose whether to die or to remain and work for 
Christ. I am here in prison and possibly will be 
condemned to death if I do not take proper means 
to defend myself, and I am in a strait what I shall 
do about it. If I live it will be for your good; if I 
die it will be for my gain. If I go I will go to 
Christ; my body will be crucified and it will go to 
the ground and 1 will be with Christ. Where is 
Christ ? Stephen saw him seated at the right hand 
of God. He is over in the next world. He has no 
communication with us now; physically we are cut 
off from him. If I depart I will be with him. 
There is a man looking in the face of death and con- 
templating the possibility of dying and being with 
Christ on the other side. 



The State of the Bead. 481 

II. Pet. i. 13, u Yea, I think it meet, as long as 
I am in this tabernacle" — referring to his body — 
"to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; 
knowing that shortly I must put off this tabernacle 
even as the Lord Jesus has showed me." 
"For we have not followed cunningly-devised fa- 
bles '' — now notice, the apostle Peter is going to 
draw some conclusion in view of death from the rev- 
elation he saw when Moses and Elias came and 
talked with Christ. He is going to get consolation 
out of it. "But we were eye-witnesses of his maj- 
esty; for he received from the Father honor and 
glory, when there came to him such a voice from the 
excellent glory, saying, This is my son in whom I 
am well pleased." We have also a more sure word 
of prophecy. Note : We have had an assurance in 
prophecy of life for the dead; we have all of God's 
promises; now we have had a conclusive demonstra- 
tion of it; a light has shone in a dark place; we 
never understood it, never clearly recognized it; we 
believed about it, and our faith was strong in God's 
word; now we have seen a demonstration of it. 
Peter and the other disciples saw men in the death 
state who came back, who were alive and in actual 
existence. 

II. Cor. v. 1-8, "For we know that if the earthly 
house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a 
building of God, a house not made with hands, eter- 
nal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly 
desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is 
from heaven; if so be that being clothed, we shall 

81 



482 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

not be found naked." Paul's idea is : I do not 
merely want to die to get out of the body, and be 
done with the troubles of this life; I am not going to 
commit suicide; I want this mortal condition that 
brings me this torture of mind and body laid aside, 
and I want to be, not naked, but clothed with the 
other life, that mortality might be swallowed up of 
life. " "' * "Therefore, we are always confi- 
dent, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the 
body, we are absent from the Lord.'' Absence and 
presence are conditions of the consciousness. You 
cannot tell if you are absent from any place to-day 
unless you are conscious. Paul says that we want 
to die and lay down this tabernacle and be swal- 
lowed up of life, absent from the body and present 
with the Lord. That shows that Paul knew that 
when this body died then his presence with the Lord 
would be a fact. 

Rev. vi. 9-11, "And when he had opened the 
fifth seal I saw under the altar the souls of them 
that were slain for the word of God, and for the tes- 
timony they held. And they cried with a loud voice, 
saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou 
not avenge our blood in them that dwell on the earth? 
And white robes were given unto every one of 
them.'' Here is a vision. Look at it ! There are 
people dead; he said they had been slain, but their 
souls were not slain, because Jesus said, Fear not 
him that can kill the body, but is not able to kill the 
soul. Their souls had not been killed. Now where 
were they ? Under the altar. What altar? "I saw 



The State of the Dead. 483 

the Lord stand on the altar, and he said, smite 
* * * That is the millenial dawning; that is 

the time the Lord is coming to take vengeance, and 
these saints were under that altar, and God answered 
their prayer for vengeance when the time for venge- 
ance came. Now, the souls of these people who had 
been slain were right before God's throne where 
God himself is standing. They were under the 
altar; their bodies were dead and their spirits, souls, 
were talking. We want to know how long before 
you avenge our blood. God replied to them, You 
have got to be patient for a little while; put the 
white robes on you and rest till your brethren are 
killed like yon. The resurrection has not come, and 
their bodies are slain, sleeping in the dust of the 
ground, and here are their souls, there on the other 
side of death, between death and the time of the res- 
urrection. This then covers the very period of the 
time of my brother's proposition. Listen to what 
the proposition says : k ' All that constitutes man will 
be totally unconscious from the time of death until 
the resurrection.'' And here John saw these souls 
after they were dead and before they were raised 
from the dead; here is a passage that comes right in 
between my brother's proposition and knocks it into 
smithereens. 

Let us notice further. The declaration of God's 
word is, we have eternal life. That is promised to 
believers. I want to call attention to some passages 
briefly on that line. John iii. 1-4,16, ''That whoso- 
ever believeth in him shall not perish, but have eter- 



484 Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith. 

nal life." There eternal life is promised the be- 
liever. It begins in this life the moment he believes. 
He puts himself in the position to get that promise 
the hour he becomes a believer. Eternal life has no 
cessation in it. It is put in his hand at once, and 
has the assurance of God, like the souls under the 
altar, who rest and are robed in white. 

Further than that; John vi. 54, '* Whosoever 
eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal 
life," hath, "and I will raise him up." Notice, will 
you; he hath eternal life. Is there going to be a 
death about it? Yes; the body has got to die and 
resurrection is coming to the body, but notwith- 
standing the dying body, he has eternal life; it be- 
longs to that spirit made in the likeness of God. Let 
me submit, if there is a period of time from the 
death of man till the resurrection, when he is totally 
unconscious, then perishing is the result for that 
length of time. The man has gone out like the light 
of the candle, and would not have any existence 
anywhere. If all that constitutes man dies at death, 
then man perishes. The body perishes, the breath 
perishes, the soul perishes, and that statement of 
Jesus Christ never could be true. 

John xvii. 2,3, "That he should give eternal life 
to as many as thou hast given him." What is eter- 
nal life % To know God. Do they know him now \ 
Christ has revealed him to you, and you know him. 
This is life eternal and it never perishes. 

I. John v. 10,13, "He that hath the Son hath 
life; and he that hath not the Son hath not life.' 1 If 



The State of the Dead. 485 

lie believes in Jesus Christ he has the witness in 
himself; he knows it. He that believeth not God 
hath made him a liar. And this is the record that 
God hath given us eternal life and that life is in his 
Son. Our life is in Christ and Christ is in us. We 
have him as a present possession, because he is 
formed in you the hope of glory; because you have 
the witness in yourself, you have got the life that 
shall never die; when he comes by and by the body 
shall perish, but when Christ, who is our life, shall 
appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory. 
We shall stand by his side, we shall hear his voice 
in the resurrection, and spirit and body shall glorify 
God together. 



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This is the best book published to place in the 
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What Baptists Believe and Why They 

Believe It. By Rev. J. G. Bow, D.D., . .$ 10 

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